A Tale of Two Princes
by Alithea
Summary: After series,Juri and Touga come to an uneasy truce and rekindle a long lost friendship. It will not be an easy road, but strange events around the campus may bring them closer to being the kind of friends they had, perhaps, always meant to be. Shoujoai.
1. An Uneasy Truce

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 1: An Uneasy Truce  
****Rating: PG-13  
****This story will contain a mild amount of Shoujo-ai Content  
Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.  
Author's: Note: In keeping with this sites guidelines I have removed the song lyrics that previously broke up the scenes of this chapter. If you would like to read this chapter with the song lyrics in it you may do so at media miner dot org . Thank you!**

He looked reflective, which was an odd change in her opinion, most of the time he seemed overly confident and smug to her critical hazel eyes. She did not know why, but she knew at that moment she had to speak with him.

He was sitting on a bench beneath a tree near one of the many ponds that dotted the Ohtori campus. His dark blue eyes while open seemed distant, as if he were looking far off beyond his reach. His signature red hair was unaccustomedly pulled back into a loose ponytail. He had on a tight black T-shirt and his uniform jacket hung over the back of the bench to his right. He crossed his legs and his lips pursed as if he were going to speak, and then relaxed again. He turned to look at her and then sadly turned away.

Her approach was as regal as always, but cautious of his state. She sat down next to him, leaning back into the bench and focused her attention to the water in the pond instead of his face.

"How may I help you today, Miss Arisugawa?" He asked, taking the lead as he so enjoyed doing.

"I do not require your help...but-"

"But," there was a definite melancholy to the way he spoke.

It troubled her greatly; even when he slipped into a defeated depression over losing the Rose Bride to Utena Tenjou she had not found herself so concerned. The worry caused her to shift her gaze towards him, and she crossed her arms over her chest, right hand lingering near her chin and fingers curling around it before releasing.

"I think we need to speak," she managed finally.

"About?"

Her eyes shut, and then she sighed, "The prince."

"She's gone, what more can be said but that? She is gone and we are here. And he is _still_ here, though languishing in defeat in his tower."

It was difficult to come up with a response to that, so she merely changed the subject.

"Do you remember the old days, those days when you and I and Ruka would meet? We would sit and talk about things, or rather, I think mostly, I just listened to you and Ruka. But you used to tease him and me relentlessly. The innuendos you managed to create, I am sometimes very amazed that I never lost my temper with you."

He managed a grin at that point.

She continued, "I think we could have been better friends sometimes, if _things_ hadn't gotten in the way."

"Perhaps," he whispered. "I could have been a better friend to many people, but I was blinded. I wanted to be the prince. I thought I knew what that meant. I was wrong."

The mood sunk a little more with the last statement. And Juri sucked it in and let it out with a long breath. It was well due time for the two of them to get things out of the way. It was well due time to start moving on passed what had happened. They did not have to be stuck. They did not have to be chained to regret. The prince had given them that choice. It was small and unseen by most, but it was there. The choice was just waiting to be taken, and made.

"Above all others," she began, "and against all better judgment I trusted you, Touga. You knew my secret. Tell me that you were not the one to divulge it to Ruka."

He grimaced, "It wasn't me."

"But you did tell someone didn't you?"

"You have to ask? Of course I did. Of course I was the very first one _he_ came to. Back then too many of you trusted me with your secrets and he used that. I gave them to him without a care for how it would affect any of you." He seemed to shrink into the bench and whispered, "I thought him a king and therefore wouldn't he know best how I could be a prince?"

"Kings forget."

"So we all have learned." He looked over at her and then said, "I have to leave. I have a class. Will you meet me again?"

She quirked an eyebrow and smirked, "If I see you sitting here, I may find myself obliged to speak with you again, but don't count on it."

Juri stood and turned sharply on her heels to head towards the fencing hall. He sat and watched her go for a moment and then left for his class.

-> ->-

Juri never liked it. She always had so few good friends and it always seemed that in the end they all left her high and dry. Shiori left the school to chase after a boy and her own jealousy. Ruka left without a word as to why, which she latter learned was an illness. And Touga, he had taken her secret and served it up to the retched chairman on a silver platter. It was an easy thing to do, putting all the blame on him. However, Juri was not a fool and as such realized...and quickly that while they played at being adults they were all still just children. They were so easy to manipulate with the chains they had borne and Touga... Wasn't his wish the easiest to corrupt of all?

Through it all, it still amazed her how much more easily hurt she was by Shiori and Ruka. Touga spilling her secret seemed like a small offense in comparison with the others. It seemed a bobble that was meant to break. But the problem with telling someone a secret, she had come to understand, was that there was no way it would ever be kept. Secrets were meant to be told, even if you tell something in confidence, eventually it will leak out. It will escape and grace the ears of those you never wanted to hear. Or rather, secrets will grace the ears of those you fear to tell.

Despite all this, there was a nagging in her insides to attempt something she was not sure she could ever get the hang of, and that was forgiveness. It was the act of blind faith that perhaps the past could, not so much be over looked, but redeem itself in her eyes. She had a glimmer of hope, and for once it warmed her instead of leaving her with a chill of aching disbelief.

Two days after that very first meeting Juri found herself wandering by the same pond again. She was oddly content to see that Touga was there sitting and watching the water. His manner was less melancholy than before although he did seem reticent and perhaps disappointed by something.

She took a seat on the bench and admired the clear brightness of the day. She doubted ever having seen the sky as blue, or the water as clear. A fish made a quick jump in the distance, chasing after a meal and she smiled broadly.

"That, I must say, is a delightful first, Arisugawa," Touga said suddenly.

"What," she turned her attention on him and pushed a stray strand of light auburn hair out of her eyes.

"The smile, I don't think I've ever seen you really smile."

"No, I don't suppose you ever have. It's a rare thing."

"You have a beautiful smile, you should do that more often I think," he replied with only a mild and hidden tone of what she normally regarded as his sly "princely" voice.

She quirked an eyebrow about to scold for the tone and then relaxed, crossing her arms over her chest. She sighed, "You're about the third person in a week to say that to me, Kiryuu. There must be something in the air."

"Indeed. I think it is...relief."

"From what exactly?"

He chuckled, "Is it possible I've acquired information before you? You're usually so on top of the school's secrets, I'm amazed."

"Honestly, I can not be expected to be in the middle of everyone's business at every moment." She smirked and continued, "Although, I do give it an honest try."

"He's left the school."

Her hazel eyes went wide for a brief second and then she slipped into her usual cool, "So, who is replacing the dear chairman?"

"No one of importance."

"If this is true why aren't you-" She stopped herself quickly. A million terrible things ran through her head and she whispered, "Do you think-"

"I think if we worry too much about it, it will drive us insane. The prince can best him. This I believe, the only one I worry for is-"

"But Miss Himemiya has shown she is not the doll we all thought her to be. She's hardly a puppet. They should be fine," her last line was spoken with a question lingering in it.

Touga was right of course they could not worry about it. If they did they'd go mad. Was it belief, then, that would keep the prince and her bride from falling? Was it belief that would keep things as they were, changed and for the better? What kept the strength of a revolution from falling apart, even if that revolution could only be felt by a very select few?

Memory, memory was the thing. The past could not be forgotten, it had to be remembered, but not regretted. Regret led to chains and the chains were what had given the chairman power. But remembrance without regret, with understanding, was a lesson in life. It was a something to help guide one in the future. Memory was a great teacher and it was a great destroyer. It was up to those that held the memories to choose the road they would ultimately take. Memory offered the hope that things would change for the better. And Touga and Juri knew they had to hope for the better.

He shifted in his seat crossing his legs uncomfortably. Watching him made her have to ask about something else. Something that she was fully aware of, and would possibly make him more worried than the sudden flight of the chairman. She wondered if it cut him deeply.

She pursed her lips in thought before speaking too glibly and then finding the correct words asked, "Why did Saionji decide to leave?"

His mouth twitched at the corner and then he cleared his throat, "He was worried."

She narrowed her eyes and shook her head, "No, there is something else; otherwise you would not look so guilty. You used to be a better liar, you know?"

"I used to be a better playboy altogether, but you know what change will do. He asked me if he should leave, and I told him, yes. And I told him that, not because I wanted him to leave, but because this school is not a good place for him to be."

"And," she asked pointedly.

"And he needs to be able to forge a path clear of my shadow."

Silence, and then Juri said, "You blame yourself too much."

"I don't blame myself enough. A prince should take responsibility for his actions."

"But a prince should also know when something was completely beyond his control. Regret leads us no where. It kills the soul."

He stood up and grinned, "You're too pretty to be so damned wise, Arisugawa. Don't you think you should start applying your logic on your self?"

A spark of indignation rose in her chest as he walked away.

He was right though, on some level. He was right.

She sighed and then spoke aloud, perhaps just to hear the words outside of her head, perhaps as a reminder, "This isn't going to be easy, but when was it ever?"

Touga walked expertly passed the throngs of his still, all too, desperate admirers to his locker. Even as he tried to change he still could not escape some of the burdens of his playboy days. He was still a charmer. He could turn the most unsuspecting comment into an innuendo that would make a girl's head spin right into his arms, but there was no longer a thrill to it (he tried to recall if there had ever been). There was no longer a sense of pride in conquering, but that was because he knew, for all his pretended trying, a true prince takes no joy in such petty conquest.

He opened his locker and his shadow was stretched out against the far wall by the setting sun. Inside, a small stack of letters greeted him and he casually looked them over. He never used to read them. He never used to care. Now he did because he wanted to be worthy of a girl prince's love. He had wanted to be the one to protect her. He had wanted to believe that he had tried to do the right things in order to do just that. But in the end he was not worthy of her, and her heart belonged to someone else.

The letters were usually all the same, but he read them in the hopes of discovering something that would make him want more. And while he waited, he would politely and sincerely reply back to those that sought his attentions, declining their generous offers. He knew he could have them if he wanted to, and knowing kept him searching for someone else like Utena Tenjou.

The reason he found her so appealing was her immediate dislike of him. She saw through his false guise and repeatedly threw his meager attempts to woo her in his face. There was a moment or two when he thought he might actually succeed with her. There was that brief respite in which he had beaten her, but she won herself back and destroyed his own sense of self. The chairman helped him briefly to recover from that, but still, in the end...

It was after his last duel with her that he realized his faults. She did not need his protection, and even after everything he could see that she regarded him kindly. It was a cliché feeling she left him with, but in the end it could not be avoided. She made him want to be a better person and what more could one ask of a prince.

He placed the envelopes into his jacket pocket and began to walk towards the fencing hall. There was something stirring inside him that could not be sated by anything save a competition. He was not sure where it emerged from, but he hoped a lone panther would be happy to oblige his request for a match. In fact the sheer idea of spending a moment or two with Juri made him smile inwardly.

It made him think of the past. It made him wonder what ever possessed her to tell him her secret.

As he approached the hall he caught the tail end of a conversation that was taking place just around the corner. He stopped and noted the voices that were speaking, both female, and one very obviously belonging to the stoic fencing captain herself.

"I'm...very sorry Juri," the other voice stated. It was petite, with a promise of cruelty though at present it was being completely sincere. "But my parents...and this school... the nightmares-"

On the other side of the wall Touga noted those words very particularly. Nightmares... he had heard of others who were having terrible dreams since the prince had left the school. Some of the students he knew quite well, but most, despite the dreams had no choice but to remain at the school. He could not be certain, but he had the passing idea that the nightmares were connected with the duels.

"I understand. Thank you, for at least telling me in person."

He shook his head as he listened. _Arisugawa, you fool why are you letting her slip away from you again,_ he thought and continued to listen.

"Write me?"

That was a nice and bold request.

"I... I will write you."

There was a type of sorrow there in the fencing captain's tone that made him want to round the corner and knock some sense into her.

"If I get on the fencing team there maybe-"

Such a wonderfully placed suggestion, there was so much he could make out of that little hint from the girl, but there was Juri interrupting, a stoic and impenetrable wall.

"Yes...Maybe."

_You should have asked her to stay. She wants you to ask her to stay, but you won't, will you? You're afraid of her, _Touga conceded as the conversation died away, taking it in for all it was worth.

He had never understood the attraction Juri had felt for the girl, that girl, her deepest secret, a small petite little thing that could be broken so easily, and was probably stronger than she seemed. He had always found the girl so forgettable, but then he supposed there was something to be said for that. He wondered what Juri was continuing to protect the girl from. Why would she send the girl away?

It stung him then, and he thought about Saionji. He grimaced.

_We send them away to protect them, Arisugawa, but do they really need it? We may never really know until it's too late. I'm sure he needed to be away from me. We just couldn't be friends like we had been. Is it the same for you? Do the feelings you have for her, or had for her...Do they keep you from letting her get close again, _he thought to himself, wondering why he should care, and more precisely why he really did care.

Once he was quite certain that he would not be intruding he rounded the corner and met with the steely hazel gaze of Juri Arisugawa. He grinned, finding amusement in her displeasure. She had known someone was there, that was why she kept her answers short. Or perhaps it wasn't that at all, but he was certain to find out.

"Eavesdropping," she questioned quickly.

His grin spread wide across his lips and he almost chuckled as he replied, "Never. I was just in the neighborhood and-"

She sighed heavily and shook her head cutting him short, "Inside, Kiryuu, and I do hope for your sake you're up for a serious challenge."

Touga would be fooling himself greatly if he refused to admit that he found Juri attractive. It would be an utter and appalling lie, not to mention a severe disservice to the young woman. He never fooled himself. He fully admitted that Juri was indeed a beauty the likes of which there was hardly a comparison anywhere on campus. And there was no other place in the whole of the academy, save the fencing hall, where her beauty and poise where better suited, and magnified almost tenfold.

It was important for him to come to terms with this, both for his own well being, and personal safety. He did not doubt that she was capable of inflicting tremendous damage if the mere face of his physical attraction towards her were to ever highly over step its boundaries. He did not fear too greatly though. Juri had remarkable patience for him and he never understood why, but was happy for the favor.

He had changed already into his whites and waited patiently for her in the hall. His helmet was under his arm and the foil he was borrowing daggled loosely in his hand. He shut his eyes thinking deeply about what he wanted to accomplish in this bought. He considered the steps he should make and the moves Juri was infamous for performing. He wondered if she would stick to the disciplined rules of fencing or treat this encounter like a duel.

The light touch of her steps entering the hall gently graced his ears and he opened his eyes to behold her. She was an angel. The thought made him grimace slightly. Angels... He had seen Ruka in a similar light. But it was hard not to conjure the image especially with the way the light spilled in from the widows casting showers of golden light on her form. He supposed if he looked hard enough he could envision where her wings would be.

He wondered what he looked like to her eyes. What was he to her, a fallen prince perhaps, or a knight seeking greatness? If she was the fallen angel just as Ruka had been, what did that make him?

A slight smirk was collected at the right corner of her mouth as she looked him over, critical as always.

"I don't suppose you'll be taking it easy on me, will you?"

"I don't take it easy on anyone, even if they are sorely out of practice," she replied almost curtly, partly amused, and a touch forgiving. "Not that it matters, but how much did you hear," she asked walking towards her spot.

"Enough."

"And what is enough, Mr. Kiryuu?"

"So formal with me all of a sudden Arisugawa, I don't think I could apologize enough for accidentally being in the vicinity for you little conversation," he replied with a grin, continuing, "She's leaving, then, your little secret?"

Her eyes narrowed, catlike and bordering on cold.

He pulled a strand of hair back from his face and shrugged, "Some people's parents are fickle about their children's education."

"It wasn't her parents."

"Oh?"

"I hate it when you do that. Do not try and sound righteous; I know you heard the other things she said. What do you know?"

"Nothing."

She quirked an eyebrow.

He grinned, "Nothing, except rumors of other students with a similar problem."

"And the problem?"

"Nightmares...Honestly Arisugawa, why push me for answers when you already know them?"

She pulled her helmet on and took her fighting stance, "Let's get on with this shall we. I want to see Shiori off properly, before she leaves."

He obliged and pulled his helmet on preparing himself for the workout that was forth coming. "Right..."

To be continue...


	2. Sleep Induced Roots: Valerian

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 2: Sleep Induced Roots: Valerian  
****Rating: PG-13  
****Author's: Note: In keeping with this sites guidelines I have removed the song lyrics that previously broke up the scenes of this chapter. If you would like to read this chapter with the song lyrics in it you may do so at media miner dot org . Thank you!  
****Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

Juri Arisugawa had always hidden her feelings. Even when she was a little girl, she kept a slight distance between herself and those that were around her. It was hard for her (especially in those rare moments when she really wanted to) to show someone exactly how she felt about them. It was difficult, but she could not let another day pass in her life without getting one thing off her chest and freed from the heavy walls she had built around her heart for protection. The walls were always more useless than she realized, and often caused her more harm than good. They were there out of long habit and she doubted they could ever be completely broken away. But she had to try, for this one thing, this one moment, she had to try.

It was very dark near the dorms she was going to. When she entered them it seemed that most of the students were tucked away and only the sound of her footsteps echoed down the corridors. She walked steadily up a flight of stairs and then turned down the hallway towards the room of Shiori Takatsuki. A girl she had once loved, her secret, her burden and chain, a girl that was in some light very cruel, and in others so very fragile.

She stopped at the door and her breath held for a second longer than she had liked. She remembered that cutting day when she had arrived after what had happened with Ruka. She didn't understand why it haunted her so, but it was forgiven. It was one of those things they had worked out once the prince had left. It was the past.

She knocked and after a beat the door opened slowly, violet eyes peering up into hazel.

The girl smiled, "Juri, what are you doing here?"

The stoic fencer swallowed down the large pit of fear that sat in her throat and replied, "I... I had wanted to speak with you before you left. I mean, really speak with you... A-a proper goodbye."

Shiori's face contorted in confusion and then worry, but she opened the door wide and ushered her friend inside. The door shut with a purposeful silence.

The room was not littered with boxes as one might have expected, but instead there were a few large suitcases. The walls were bare of decoration and the desk completely clear save a small picture frame, the contents of which could not be clearly seen.

"It isn't really goodbye, Juri. I'll write. I promised-"

Eyes shut and then opened, the young woman known as a panther made herself stand up straight. She placed a gentle hand on the petite girl's shoulder and said very softly, "I need to tell you some thing, and I need to do it now or I never will."

The girl looked towards her desk, to avoid eye contact. Her manner was worn and terribly sad. It must have been the dreams. The nightmares had kept her from sleeping, Juri knew that much, but not everything. She did not know the exact contents and while she would never want to pry she hoped that one day the girl would tell her what it was that haunted her so.

The panther sighed.

After the prince had left it had taken some trying for her to even consider speaking to Shiori outside the safe realm of the fencing hall. It took even longer for her to give in, and find a way back into a friendship with the girl. Still, they were only mildly causal friends, and still, there were things they just could not confide to each other (all dreams and lockets, letters and jealousy), but she had to do this. It nagged at her insides, and she had been so prepared to have the conversation at the fencing hall, but then she couldn't. She knew someone was listening, and even if it was Touga, she could not afford to have anyone but Shiori hear the words she wished to speak.

"Your hand is trembling," the girl whispered somewhat shocked finding a way to look in the fencing captain's eyes.

"Is it?"

It was, slight, and lightly, but still, it was. She withdrew and held her hands in loose fists by her sides, and doing so felt the tremble sneak up through her body. She would have to force herself to speak when all she wanted to do was retreat completely and mutter a curt farewell. Her shoulders rolled forward and her gaze dropped to the floor. She hated the color of the carpet, and chided herself for thinking trivial things at such a pivotal moment.

"Juri, what is it," genuine worry in a small and light voice. Genuine concern in eyes of violet that matched the girl's hair, that went so well with her pale skin.

"About the locket-"

"Not that, you don't have to bring that up, it isn't important anymore...not to me."

"But it was important to me," she said quickly and stepped forward, gracing her palm to the girl's face.

Shiori closed her eyes and leaned into it, "Please, Juri... You don't have to say. Between you, and I, and that locket we managed to ruin a perfectly good friendship that we still don't have back. I mean, I...I was so... but you forgave me, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did, but could you forgive me? We've talked about this before."

"We have," a tear began to make its way down her cheek and her teeth clenched together as Juri wiped it away with her thumb. "But please... don't tell me...don't, I-"

"It was you. It was always you."

Shiori pulled violently away and stared the panther down. There was hatred in her eyes that slowly ebbed away as she began to cry more. She tried to escape from, but eventually succumbed to Juri's slow embrace.

"I-I am sorry."

She sniffed and shook her head, "Oh Juri, you don't understand... I... He told me. I already knew." She wrapped her arms up tight around the fencer's waist and then whispered, "I didn't want to believe him, but I knew it was true."

The young woman was almost white with terror. The petite girl moved out of the embrace and ushered her friend over to the bed, making her sit. She put her hands on her friend's shoulders and looked deeply into her hazel eyes.

"When he and I broke up-"

"Ruka, you bastard," was the interruption.

"Listen to me, Juri, please."

"Fine," she let the word out as a long sigh. Her focus dipped down to the floor again and she shut her eyes.

"When he dumped me, he told me. It took near forever to stop being mad at you. I thought it was so disgusting, but listen, because this is very important...look at me," her tone was gentle; it was an odd thing to experience. "It took a long time for me to crawl out of myself after that. But I found something deep inside when it was all through, and that made it possible for me to even dare tryout for the fencing team."

"What was it?"

"Love. I love you Juri, but not- Not the way you would have wanted me to. I can't."

Juri looked up and grimaced, "I'd be kidding myself to expect you to have returned my feelings. Why do you think I hid them from you?"

She wiped her eyes dry and smiled, "Because you're stubborn Miss Arisugawa, very, very stubborn."

The stoic fencer stood up and took a deep breath, "The color of your carpet is horrid, you know?"

The petite girl shook her head and tried not to giggle.

"I will miss you."

"But... you are going to write me, so it'll be like I never left the next time I see you. Spare me no details."

A light auburn eyebrow perked and she could not help but grin. "Not one detail?"

"You know what I mean... Juri?"

"Hmm?" she was about to head toward the door.

"I'm glad you finally decided to tell me. I mean despite my asking you not to... Thank you, for trusting me with that."

"Perhaps, one day, you too, will be able to trust me with something."

It was a cutting remark that did not mean to be, and Shiori caught it and held it for a second before letting it go. She could not share her nightmares, they hurt too much. She didn't want to think about what it meant. The dreams went too... too deep.

With a slight nod Juri took hold of the doorknob and walked out of the room. She felt lighter, and yet she was still troubled. She hoped that her friend would find solace at her new school. She hoped, and the hope was so real she wondered what it meant.

What was it to hope? Wasn't it just a dream without sleeping, a wish without a star or a well?

Outside of the dormitory in the cool hush of the night she found herself doing what she never wanted to do again. She prayed for a miracle.

Juri's trip back to her dorm room was intruded by the lingering figure of the Student Council President outside of the building. He was leaning against a wall, arms neatly folded over his chest. He looked up as she neared, deep blue eyes questioning.

"Have a date, or is this just a happy coincidence," she asked briskly, as her deep and elegant stride carried her closer to the doorway.

"I just wanted to see how your last encounter with that girl would fair. By the look of things, it went well."

She quirked an eyebrow, "I mentioned it before, but you used to be a better liar, Kiryuu. What do you want?"

He shrugged casually, smiling as he replied, "Not a thing, I was just curious about your friend."

"I don't know what her dreams are about."

"I can't put anything past you, can I? I didn't think you would."

"Why are you so concerned about these dreams?"

He stood up straight and began to walk away, "No reason."

She tried very hard to control her temper but found she could not. She spun on her heels and walked after him, tapping him viciously on the shoulder until he turned to greet her. When he finally did, she slapped him so hard across the face he had to take a step back a few paces.

"That, is for acting like pig headed male who thinks I shouldn't be involved. I do not need protecting and you are the last person on this campus I ever thought I would have to explain that to. Or do you need to bested in the dueling arena for that to get through to you? You didn't fair too well against me this afternoon when I was playing by the rules of the sport. You wouldn't last very long once I left those rules forgotten."

He rubbed his hand on his cheek and grinned. It had been ages since she had given him a lecture like that. The last was long ago, before the duels just after Ruka had left. He cleared his throat and replied still smiling, "I haven't been hit that hard since Tenjou left." He opened his mouth wide to stretch his jaw and then he chuckled, "I think if you had hit me just a little harder you would have dislocated my jaw."

Her eyes were dark and she was clearly not amused. It was not something she enjoyed, lashing out in a rage. It was hardly fitting to her normal stoic cool, but she was the panther after all, some violence was to be expected on occasion.

"You really want to take this mystery on, Arisugawa? Is it really prudent for us to even pry about it?"

"Stop asking stupid questions. What do you know?"

"Oh no, ladies first," he said. "I know you have a little information to share."

Her body relaxed and she sighed, almost immediately forgetting her anger. He was a jerk sometimes. He could be a complete ass in her opinion and her anger stemmed from a feeling that he was daring to behave like Ruka had. (She missed Ruka. She had liked him. He had been a good friend but he wanted too much of her that she could never give. He wanted to protect her from his feelings, his illness and that she could not abide. She did not need to be coddled. She needed to feel like he trusted her. And she supposed she could have done a much better job granting the same thing to him.) She considered for a moment that, that was not Touga's immediate intention. He pushed the buttons he knew would get a reaction so as to better gauge the situation. He wanted to know if it was something really worth pursuing. She hoped her reaction gave him the answer he wanted, and she hoped, for his sake, that he never tried anything that foolish again. It was never a wise thing to be on her bad side. History proved she knew how to hold a grudge.

"Shall we go inside then? I'll put on some tea," she stated with the last of her rage cooling into a soft ember.

He nodded and they began to walk back to the dorms.

A small chuckled left his throat as they reached the door, "You know if things keep up like this people will start to talk."

"Oh, will they?"

"They'll whisper rumors about our sordid romance in the halls. Too bad we can't actually make the rumors truth."

Juri opened the door and held it while the redheaded playboy stepped through. As it closed she stated quite matter-of-factly, "Kiryuu, there are enough rumors in this school about me that are already true enough. I think some false ones would liven thing up a bit, don't you?"

He gave her a strange sideways glance and she merely smiled in away that could almost be described as cute, but was just perhaps a little more on the devious side.

_**  
**_

Nightmares...

They spoke of nightmares and dreams, while sipping an excellent blend of rose tea that Juri had acquired from one of the small shops in the town. They sat on the floor, she leaned back against her bed, and he sat a comfortable distance away near her dresser.

Normally she would not have let him into her room, but then, she hardly let anyone in that space. They needed to speak though, and the threat of rumors aside, she really had no care over what the dorm chaperone might say or do if they were to be caught. In fact it was fairly safe to assume that the poor chaperone was more frightened of what Juri Arisugawa could do to her, then vice versa. It was an awkward fact, but even without the chairman's influence she, along with the other student council members, had an odd way of inducing the fear of God into the faculty. She was, especially, well noted for not suffering foolish educators.

Touga had just finished giving out his information and they sat in silence for along time after soaking up all the connotations. It concerned both greatly that the dreams would remain after the chairman had left the school. It spoke in a manner about his power over things, but it had to be greatly considered that it was not his power at work.

"We do not have much to go by," Juri stated, tiring of the quiet. "All we know is that about a hundred students have been having these nightmares, but only a handful of those students are actually connected with the Student Council. It doesn't really make sense."

He shrugged, "This is true, but we can not ignore the implications. You heard what I told you about poor Tsuwabuki's dreams? It was clearly a duel he was fighting. When he spoke to me, the detail he gave of the arena was near perfect."

She set her tea aside and folded her arms across her chest. After a slow beat she sighed and offered up something she previously withheld out of privacy's sake (and because of what he would put her through because if it), "Yes, the details given are undeniable. Kozue too-"

Surprise took over his cooler expression, "Kozue? You mean Miki's sister?"

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I haven't time for the full story, but yes, her too. I mentioned it, didn't I?"

"You did not. Did Miki tell you about her dreams?"

"No. And I would appreciate it greatly if you would stop grinning like that. She came to me, besides now that the twins are in separate bedrooms I'd highly doubt Miki would be aware of it."

He brushed back his long red hair and chuckled, "The secrets you keep, honestly, I'm shocked."

"Stop being smug."

"I will stop, maybe...If you explain to me how it is you know about her dreams, you didn't even know about your little friend's nightmares."

"If they are anything similar, which I expect they are," she paused and took in a deep almost sorrowful breath, "I'm not sure I could handle the inferences."

"Still, that does not explain-"

"There are some moments in life that eternally connect you to another person, whether you want them to or not. Let's just say, for now, that she knew she could trust me," Juri closed her eyes for a half a second and then looked over at him to ask, "Can I get you another cup?"

He waved his hands and shook his head slightly, "I'm fine. I should be leaving anyway. These nightmares...Even if they are connected with the duels; I am not sure how we would stop them."

"I agree, but... We have a choice to make right now."

He grinned, "We do nothing and observe, or get to the root of it. What would she do, the prince? I have to wonder."

"I can not say, but I know what I will do."

"You'll investigate further. You want to solve this mystery."

"I want the people I care for to be freed of their burdens, and I think you want the same."

He scoffed, "Do I?"

She stood up and he rose as well. They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment, hazel regarding blue, no longer critical, but questioning. There were a million things he could see in her eyes that he was sure she could also read in his. It was an odd moment of clarity for him. He had not felt so distantly close to someone in a long time. He held out his hand to her and she took it.

"We are no longer duelists, Kiryuu, and as such I will lend you my aid. Will you lend me yours?"

"Allies then?"

"Comrades in arms."

"Then please, as my comrade, as my friend, call me Touga."

She smiled and they shook hands.

To be continued...


	3. Dreamers Take Shape in Lithe Colors: Red...

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 3: Dreamers Take Shape in Lithe Colors: Red and Blue  
****Rating: PG-13  
****Poetry is mine  
****Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

He had situated himself on a bench that sat under the shade of a large willow tree. The tree's thin branches dipped down into the water of the pond, causing to surface to ripple with the slight movement of the breeze. The pond was one of the largest on the campus, and one he greatly preferred for the activity that collected around it. It was large enough for one or two students to venture out into its depths in small row boats, and the children of the Ohtori grammar school flocked to that location as it was the best site for launching newly built model sailboats, or remote control ships.

He was engaging himself in a book of poetry as a distraction from the calculus exam he should have been studying for. He supposed if he wanted, he could have gone to a tutor for some help, but there was something in his pride that refused to allow him to seek help, even from Miki who he knew to be quite the genius in mathematics.

The days were getting hotter and as such he found more reason to pull his hair back into a loose ponytail and wear tight t-shirts, as he would drape his uniform jacket over his arm when he walked or the back of a chair when he sat. The teachers of the school seemed to be overly accepting of his disregard for the school uniform regulations and he found it pitiful that his blatant indifference for them should go unpunished.

His deep blue eyes drifted from the pages of his book to the outlying form of a female student standing just to the left of his peripheral view. The shape of the uniform was that of a regular student and he found himself slightly disappointed that it was not Juri coming to chat, or better yet, offer up any new found information concerning the dreams. Really, more than anything, he wanted to pry a little more into the panther's dealings with Kozue Kaoru.

Setting the book aside he looked over to greet the student that appeared to be waiting for his attentions. He wondered if she had a letter to give him, and then immediately recognizing the girl smiled warmly in greeting.

"Good afternoon, Miss Keiko," he stated cordially and motioned for her sit.

The girl was one of Nanami's friends and also, much to his regret, one of the many girls he had previously dated. He had paid her attention in order to make his sister jealous (to get her to duel) and his actions were completely lacking in chivalry. He was a terrible brother, he admitted that much, but he was trying to make things better. And his sister seemed to be understanding of his faults, and happily she was no longer idealizing him quite as much as she used to. On some level it was a blessed relief, and on others it was a cut to his ego...but he supposed he deserved that. He needed cuts to his pride on occasion lest he forget how to be humble. (Somewhere, he had a feeling that either Juri or the prince was suddenly having a chuckle for no reason that they could gather.)

The girl inched forward tentatively and eventually took the seat that was offered. Her brown eyes focused on the water and seemed to make a further point to show that she was far too young for him to ever have even kissed. If he had never changed he supposed he would not have felt like such a heel, but he had and he did.

"Mr. Kiryuu, um... That is to say-"

He quickly interrupted her to help calm her nerves, "Please, there is no need for formalities; you have been my sister's friend for a long time now, and given our past...Do call me, Touga."

She let out a sigh and seemed to shrink in her place. Then she shook her head, "I'm sorry, I-I should not have come to bother you."

He shook his head, "Nonsense. You have never been a bother, and obviously you have something you would like to discuss."

She trembled and it took him back. He was aware of many things when it came to girls, or at least he believed he knew many things, but the display of fear and fragility that had nothing to do with a want for lustful comforting made him think before he immediately sprung into a "princely" action. With slight hesitation he placed a hand on her shoulder and she shook more, beginning to weep.

"Tell me what it is, Keiko. Do not fear it, just speak, and I shall listen."

She crumbled and he quickly moved to hold her closer. The embrace seemed to calm her enough that she could speak, though she did so amid gulping sobs. As she progressed in her tale his eyes grew wider with concern and shock.

She spoke of dreams...nightmares so terrible they were beginning haunt her during waking hours.

_They dream of dark confessionals, of receiving a new heart  
__They dream of going deeper and tearing us apart  
__They toss in their sleep as the images come  
__They wake in a sweat at the things they have done  
__A duel in which they yearn for the blood  
__Of a bride and prince deeply in love  
__In the end it is their feelings, emotions that run deep  
__Secrets they have held that they can no longer keep_

"Did she actually faint when she finished," Juri's eyebrow quirked as the question left her mouth.

They had assembled in the old meeting place of the student council. It was more out of necessity than want that they did so. There was no other place on the campus that was concealed and secluded enough to have the discussion.

Touga was leaning back into his chair; legs crossed and hand to his brow in something akin to anguish but less severe. He gave a mild nod in reply and tried not to take too great offense when the lithe fencer shrugged.

"Tell me, was Kozue's account anything like that," he asked sharply.

"It was worse." She had whispered that reply so that it was nearly lost to the wind.

He looked over at her wanting to say something more, but could not find the proper words to express his feelings.

Juri shifted in her seat, leaning into the arm of the chair before sitting up right again eyes narrowing, "They were used, Touga. That much is very clear to me. They were used."

"In duels that no one has any memory of?"

"How else to explain it? All the accounts go in a similar vein. Oh," her voice rose in exclamation and then she continued, "Do you remember Kanae Ohtori?"

He waved his hand in dismissal, "Only vaguely."

"She was engaged to _him._"

He sat upright then.

"I knew that would catch your attention," Juri stated with a grin that quickly faded away as she continued, "They placed her in the care doctors the other day."

"Dreams?"

"Suicide attempt, but apparently she was screeching uncontrollably about a prince...about black roses."

"Do you actually have a secret underground network of spies working for you," he asked with a sly grin, "because honestly every time you mange to pull information like this up I have to wonder."

She rolled her eyes and let a huff of irritation escape her lips before replying, "As much as it would be nice to have a staff, I'm entirely lacking in the funds necessary to keep an operation of that size and stature up. I just have a way with people."

"And information."

"That as well, but, all that aside... What would you like to do?"

He shrugged and then offered, "I think we need to wait for more information to come our way."

She frowned, "Would you consider having the remaining members of the Student Council come in to help?"

"No. I do not think we should trouble them."

She new that was the answer she would receive. She did not think it was the correct reaction but understood why he was reticent to allow it. He had his sister to look over after all, and she too did not wish to drag Miki back into such strange events. However, she had to put the question out there, because eventually she was certain they would need the others help. For the moment the refusal could be accepted, but quite soon she was sure she would be forced into pressing the point.

She gave a nod and the matter was left at that.

"Are you at all at ease with telling me what Kozue shared with you," Touga asked after a brief bit of silence.

She shook her head and then proceeded to tell him. He listened intently and at the end felt nearly as awful as he had after Keiko relayed her dreams to him. It was a dark thing, the dreams. They seemed to come from a haunted place.

Juri rose from her seat and proceeded to walk back towards the elevator. Before she reached the door she paused and said, "We should prepare ourselves. I have no doubt that the other students will be making themselves known to us very soon. I don't know why I have this feeling, but I'm almost positive... These dreams...the people they affect... They want to be told. They are eager to be confessed and remembered."

She padded away and soon after the sound of the elevator going down caught in his ears. From where he sat he could see the over bearing height of the chairman's tower and it cast its shadow long across the campus. He sneered and stood up.

"I refuse to let you win. Together we will defeat you for good," he said soberly and then quickly took his leave.

_Oh all together blind  
__We seek for better times  
__And wishes that turned sour  
__We vanquish by the hour  
__After all could we fall  
__Could we crawl  
__So blindly back into your game  
__But we already know your name  
__And it isn't so easy  
__It isn't so easy  
__We're turned on to your scheme  
__And we won't let you kill our dreams  
__All together blind  
__You'll find us disinclined  
__To ever, ever look your way again_

Exiting the building Touga found himself almost immediately in the midst of an awkward exchange between Juri and another female student he took care to recognize as Miki's sister. He was thankful to be far enough away so as not to hear the exact words that were being said, but part of him felt a tad intrusive for even observing.

He pulled himself back into the shadow of the building to view more carefully. He did not like to pry, but he was curiously worried about the connection the young women shared. It was more a distrust for the blue haired girl, the twin that was most definitely darker than her brother. It was hard not to miss that difference.

Everything about Kozue was a shade or two darker than her brother, from the hair, down to the color of the yes. And the eyes were where it really hit home, because her eyes were deep, and Miki's were shallowed with bright innocence.

It wasn't the girl's obvious darkness that worried him. It wasn't the overt fact that Kozue Kaoru had taken a few short trips around a good portion of the male population in the school, or that he had been among the numbers. It was that he knew the girl had kept sinister company, and he worried about how close she had actually been with the chairman. He wondered if she still knew a thing or two about the chairman that others might not.

He shook his head. She had the nightmares to. Juri had laid all those dreams out for consumption, and she was right...Kozue's dreams were far worse than Keiko's. He pondered for a moment that the severity came from the closeness the student shared with the individual they had dreamt about.

In Keiko's dreams she had stolen a sword from his chest, but she did not know him that well. But Kozue had dreamt of stealing from her brother, and she obviously knew him very well, even if they were a bit estranged.

He made an effort to remember the theory so that he could discuss it later with Juri.

In the distance the two young women moved closer together as they spoke. The body language was bizarrely strained as if they feared contact. As if they dreaded each other and could only come so close without wilting away from the other's possible touch. They both wore serious expressions, which was surprising in itself because Kozue (to his general knowledge) always seemed to have a smirk tucked away in the corner of her mouth that diminished and grew as she spoke. The strained space between the two closed sharply as Juri planted a hand on the wicked girl's shoulder.

He decided it was best to leave when he noted Kozue's reaction to that touch. He slipped out of the shadows and walked purposefully in the opposite direction of the conversation. It would take him longer to get to the mansion like dorm he shared with his sister, but that hardly mattered to him.

He wished he was a better judge of scenes like that. Part of him insisted that the two were lovers, but then one could never be sure about someone like Juri.

The long walk back to his dorm was pleasant. Even more so was the sight of the fencing captain, arms crossed and waiting from him near his door.

He grinned. Of course she knew he had been watching, of course she would see him take the long way back to his dorm. They shared a knack for that kind of detail. It came from playing games in the shadows of the school. It came from being a duelist.

"Are you here to chide me," he asked pleasantly.

She shook her head, "You weren't exactly eavesdropping now were you. You were just watching, and like most boys probably got the signals all wrong."

"Do give me some credit, Juri. I'm sure I've spent enough time with both you and Miss Kaoru to learn exactly what signals you're sending out"', he replied glibly, hopping his little barb would be taken lightly.

"Believe me... you have the wrong idea."

"Then you are just mere acquaintances?"

She stiffened and then relaxed. Her eyes remained calm, though he could decipher a hint of agitation.

_Why can't you just tell me, Juri, _he thought to himself. _What is it that you are hiding and why bother? It is no mystery to me where your tastes run. Just get it off your chest..._

"We're... friends of a sort."

He chuckled, "What 'sort'? You should know better than to leave things to my vivid imagination."

She shut her eyes and stepped forward. She looked up at him as if she were deciding at that very moment, friend or not, how much she really wanted to trust him with. After a second she pushed away and shook her head.

"I'm not sure I could wrap the concept around that eager male brain of yours."

"Try me."

She spun around, and stepped back toward him, "Have you ever loved someone, who loved someone else, and then that someone else ends up loving you?"

He blinked as the question contorted in his mind. She watched him try and connect the pieces and then shook her head patting him kindly on the shoulder.

"I didn't think so," she walked away again. "Thank God your life never gets quite as complicated as mine."

He shouted after her, "I will thank God that I do not _make _my life so complex."

She smirked as she walked on, raising her hand to wave.

Touga took a beat to watch her saunter off and then stepped inside. There was some mail on the table in the foyer. One of the envelopes caught his eye and made his heart begin to race. It was small, lavender, and had a deep red wax seal containing the Ohtori signet.

He looked from the envelope and up into the eyes of his sister.

"Don't open it," she pleaded and then dashed off in the direction of her room.

Her cries caught in his ears. He wanted to run after her. He wanted to tell her it would be alright, but instead he stayed where he was. He picked up the envelope and began to open it.

To be continued...


	4. The Romance of Sleepers and the Haunting...

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 4: The Romance of Sleepers and the Haunting of What Never Was  
****Rating: PG-13  
****Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

Juri stalked the long path back to her dorm and wished for someone she could drag into the fencing hall to fight. She had left the best sparring partner she had to the care of his dorm so that he might contort his way through the conundrum she had left him with. Touga saying that he would not make his life as complicated as her own, while a good answer to the equation, was not exactly appropriate in her line of thinking.

She worried too much. She wanted to do right by the people in her life, and that was why she usually kept them a good arms length away. She was a frightening person to know, she realized. She was all too intense and all too cold within the same breath. Someone had once called her an angel and a devil locked within the same skin. She agreed stating that, "I am the two of me."

_But both_, she thought carefully, _both feel so hollow._

There were so many things she felt she needed to do, and most presently occupying her mind were all about dreams. Dreams of a prince and dreams of duels that were darker than any she had ever participated in. All the duels she had lost...she lost to herself.

She wanted to find the person or persons responsible for the dreams.

She wanted to be able to keep her friends close. And she seemed to better at it with Touga than Miki (and she refused to even think about her relationship with his sister), but wasn't that just because they had a goal in common. Wasn't their closeness derived of a deeper connection, to secrets and betrayals, or reconciliation and forgiveness come too late?

The lamp lights along the pathway began to flicker into life. The pale yellow-orange light that seeped forth created shadows on the path. Sometimes, in some views, the shadows looked like hands pointing to an unknown location. The air was getting crisp and she thought about the coming holiday break and how she would inevitably still be at the school for it.

She would have taken the time to resent her parents had she actually ever gotten the chance to really know them. Perhaps her sister would grant her a favor and let her visit. The thought warmed her. Yes, that would be nice and she could stroll along Paris streets and maybe pick up a modeling job. She could spend a week in a city that filled her with dazzling sites and wonderful foods...

"Beautiful women," she muttered and then bit at her bottom lip.

She wished again for someone to fence against again. Then she considered going for a long jog and a cold shower. There was a fire that had started burning in her and she wanted to fight it. She didn't want to crave what she was craving.

She needed to stop bottling up her feelings.

She needed to write Shiori a long letter.

She needed to do her homework.

She needed to call her sister.

She needed to stop worrying.

She shut her eyes and heavily considered her thoughts. It made her smirk, all those things she needed to do. And then it hit her that the one thing she really needed to do...

"Prowling, Arisugawa?"

...was to stop running into Kozue Kaoru.

Juri shrugged as the younger woman approached, and then stated flatly, "On your way home or looking for a date?"

"Maybe...I haven't decided what I want to do." The wolfish young woman stepped in closer.

"I thought I had made things clear this afternoon," she whispered.

Kozue sneered a bit and then huffed, almost chuckled, "No, you just made things more..." She stopped and whatever smug and ripping remark she was about to make slipped away and she grimaced, managing a laugh that turned into a sad sigh, "I just want a good night's sleep, Arisugawa."

With a breath of airy speculation the stoic fencer said, "Don't we all."

_I don't have the strength it takes  
__When it comes to loving you  
__And you don't have the heart  
__To give into what love asks of you  
__We can go in circles until we fall apart  
__But darling I think the Fates have toyed with us  
__Almost right from the very start  
__We have this time  
__This little game  
__We play around  
__And we both feel the same  
__But giving in and giving up  
__And giving out to you  
__All these pieces of my heart  
__End up way beyond blue and bruised_

They would sleep together, but not in any lustful or romantic sense, although perhaps there was a spark of something in the latter that was desperate to weed its way into the both of them. It was merely sleeping, sleeping and holding each other as they dreamed of what they really wanted, or of nightmares that would not go away.

They would chat casually over inane subjects that hardly mattered for awhile first. Juri would make tea. Then the fencer would take a long shower leaving Kozue to clear the cups, and toss on an over sized t-shirt that would serve as pajamas.

Juri would emerge from the heat and steam already in her night gown and still a little damp. And they would be stuck for a second or two as thoughts of something deeper would cross into them. Thoughts illuminated by a glance or a slight touch, a brush of the shoulders. It never went anywhere though. It stayed as perfectly innocent as two friends having a sleepover.

They would glide under the covers, melding into the small space of the slightly over sized twin bed. They would shut their eyes and forgive the softness of the others touch, as a leg would adjust, or the slip of a hand along the stomach as the depths of slumber overtook them.

In the morning they always found themselves too close for comfort. Their dreams would bring them closer and they would wake, a tangle of limbs, caught by the small nagging fires that being so near could bring. There were times when they wished to close the gap between them. There were times when one would wish she could just give in and press her lips into the softness of the other, but then never did.

Why had it started? It was hard to say exactly what drove them to it, but it was mostly because they both had trouble sleeping. It was because they were drawn together by odd coincidences at an earlier time, and it was also because of a girl with violet eyes.

When Juri found out it was a slow and steady scratch against her heart (yes, still, even after Juri had let her go, even after knowing she did not love Shiori, and that was important...because deep inside, she knew she no longer loved, in that same romantically tortured way, the girl with the violet eyes). She felt so entirely miserable and then Kozue had come to her and things just got... complicated was being polite. One would have thought after all the business with the locket she would have learned better, and she had. That was why she never slept with Kozue, and that was why Kozue pretended she did not notice the little butterfly's sly flirtations.

But Shiori was gone now. She had left for anther school. She probably had another crush already. She probably had her heart set on something else, because she was always and forever a little butterfly. She flitted from one pretty thing to the next; never really understanding that she never gave anything back.

And she was gone now.

It was a point Kozue had been trying to press, and she could press a point until one just want to either give in or shove her violently away. She wanted that from Juri. She wanted the panther to either give in or push her away. She hated this compromised illusion, and she knew that Juri hated it to.

After all the boys, all the dating, the cigarettes, the good byes, and deep seething regrets of ever getting into that damned red convertible of the chairman's, Kozue found herself very bitter and void of feeling for anyone. And then one day, she didn't know why, but she sat down at the piano again and started to play. Her brother heard her and after the initial shock pulled away sat down next to her. They still were not as close as they could be. They still had a dark patch that separated them, but it was a change...and change... wasn't that something oddly intriguing?

She knew she could change if she wanted to, and then she found Juri. They clicked, they sparked, and they knew how to push each others buttons. There was a sophisticated wildness to the panther, and as long as she stayed wild...Well how could Kozue resist, after all she was an animal, deeply and intrinsically, and even the wickedest and wildest needed a mate.

The long lines of the moon's light spilled in from between the blinds.

They couldn't go on like this. Things had to break for better or worse.

There was a fire that was burning inside Juri's chest, and unconsciously, Kozue had caught a whiff of the embers.

Kozue shifted her position and turned to face the panther, who was, to her great surprise...awake.

They stared into each other's eyes for a while, until the younger touched her hand to the other's face, her thumb stroking along the cheek, and pulling closer so that their legs tangled into each other and they were too close for comfort and anything innocent.

"Juri...I... I need...," she felt her heart beating stronger, or was it that she felt Juri's heart beating with her, growing in a pace to meet her own. She shut her eyes and when she opened them she mouthed the word, 'This.'

Their lips met, softly at first, hungry for something they had tried to deny, for reasons that seemed too simple to really matter. As touches grew and kisses increased the wilds of Kozue's character found a new way to blossom, so suddenly trapped under the weight of a panther's explosive longing.

_We can regret the morning  
__We can stem still the tides  
__Oh yet it is better now that I have rushed to you  
__Oh yet it is better now that I have staked my claim  
__With my lips  
__The pull of our hips  
__And we glide into something voraciously cruel  
__We land in the depths of lustful fools  
__And in this flame or spark that pierced the dark  
__And in this new space that captures the heart  
__We can regret as the sun rises full  
__But we won't...we don't_

She was not pleased to have been roused from her bed at such an ungodly hour, especially given the present company she was keeping. But while he was all cheeky grins, and muted chuckles upon seeing her, he immediately took her displeasure to heart and produced forth the letter he had received.

She responded by shutting the door in his face and scurrying about her room to find more appropriate clothing. Softly explaining the situation to the guest in her room, in polite and hushed tones that she knew he would not be able to hear clearly from the other side of the door. She promised to return shortly and the young woman promised she would wait, seeming to understand the exacting urgency of the situation.

When Juri emerged from her room she was lovely site. Her uniform was rumpled and sloppily thrown on, and her massive light auburn locks were a tousled mess hastily pulled back into a ponytail. She gave him a scathing look when he had the audacity to point out a small purplish mark on her neck.

They walked in silence outside of the dorm and proceeded quickly to the fencing hall since it was relatively close and conveniently vacant at such an hour. They took up short residence in the unused office of the administrator who was supposed to chaperone the activity of the fencing team but always seemed to be otherwise engaged.

He handed her the letter, or rather, the short note. Too short in fact, it consisted of only two words, useful and helpful a clue, but still...a bit brief in her mind. She took in the whole of the letter comparing it to the other's the student council had received before. Noting carefully the differences and then handed it back to Touga.

"It isn't him," she muttered.

Touga grinned, "I knew you would say that. How can you tell, he could be trying to fool us?"

"The hand writing is too feminine to be his," she paused and then looked him over, "He would not be so brief in instruction and besides I do not think we have anything left to offer him."

"Rather bold assumptions, I think."

"But you feel the same way, don't you? I know you don't think it's him, but the questions remains...Who did send it? And why so brief a message," she asked calmly.

He looked over the note and the elegant curves of the handwriting. The way the words popped out from the background of light lavender with a darker purple ink. And just two words, a simple location, it seemed it should have been obvious to them. The card said: _Neumero Hall. _

"What do you make of the stamp at the bottom of the card," he asked quickly.

She shook her head, "I've no idea. The hand is pointing to something but we may not be able to know what it is until we go check out the hall." She was about to shrug when a sudden chill overtook her and she placed her hand over her chest, as the whisper of pain sprung up there. She looked over at Touga and then whispered, "You know, that hall is supposed to be haunted... I don't know why, but I suddenly feel there is something very important I need to remember about that place."

"Something dark..."

"No... something...something that is sad. A hundred students were burnt alive in that hall," as she spoke her eyes grew wide and then she muttered in continuation, "I should have thought of this before. I feel like... I feel like I've only just regained the memory."

Concern began to etch into his features and he stepped forward to place a hand on her shoulder, which she immediately shrugged off.

"But there are so many haunted places on this campus, Touga. Why should this one feel so different? I mean the old fencing hall is considered haunted as well and-"

She stopped as a dreamy image floated to the surface of her mind. It was a haze of fights performed between the duelists, but they had not taken place inside the dueling arena. She looked to Touga, and wondered if he had any similar feelings. She wanted to say she remembered winning completely, and then she also wanted to say she lost, but most of her stated very sternly that no such events ever took place.

"Memory is something that is criminal to distort," Touga said with some mild comfort.

She was right, he was having the same problem.

She took in a deep breath and letting it out said, "After classes, we should go to Neumero Hall, and then perhaps if we survive that jaunt we can go to the old fencing hall as well. I don't like this, Touga. I do not like even the subtle hinting that our memories were toyed with."

"I should think no one would, but if we have these feelings...Then the others too will eventually be having the same. Dreams and memories... What are dreams but the memories of things that never were, but might have been?"

"Waxing a bit philosophical there?"

He grinned, "I can be a very deep person if I want to be."

"But you prefer the shallow end?"

"Very funny... Juri, I would suggest wearing a turtleneck to classes," he quipped. "Wouldn't want to have people talking, now would you?"

She didn't even bother to tell him to leave her alone. She just shook her head and began to walk out of the room. He followed and stopped her before they parted.

"You told her didn't you? The reason you had to leave, you told her the truth?"

"I did."

"You trust her."

"I do, because she longs for her brother to keep his innocence even if she says and acts otherwise, and because..."

"Because?'

"Because of the past."

He wanted to press further she could feel it in his glances, but she made it perfectly clear through her body language that the matter was not to go any deeper. She walked off quickly and he too turned to the direction of his dorms. Perhaps, Nanami had forgiven him and unlocked herself from her room.

Hi grimaced. He hoped she was feeling better. He was such a terrible brother.

To be continued...


	5. Through the Darkness of Their Dreams: Sa...

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 5: Through the Darkness of Their Dreams: Salmon and Maroon  
****Rating: PG-13  
****Shoujo-ai Content  
Poetry is mine.  
****Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

The tickle of the dream lingered over him, and even if he had wanted to escape from it, there was just no way it would let him slip away. It was dark, but, to him it was hardly as menacing as he thought it would be. It was the tone of the young man's voice, really; it comforted as it prodded. It was so steady it could have been mechanized, and yet, no computer or robotic sound could manage, what was, a sad lamenting edge in the very sound.

He sat in a dark confessional and the voice entreated him to speak. He kept his hands on his lap, and his head bowed so that his long red hair covered his face. He began to speak quietly, confessing lightly, and with anguish. And as he spoke the elevator began to rise.

And the voice said, "Deeper. Go deeper."

At first Touga resisted, but then, there were the words mixed in anger and sadness spilling forth into the current of darkness that seemed to be growing around him. He paused, briefly. He wanted to hold part of it back. He didn't want to say all he was saying, because it was not quite right. It was partly truth, but it was more the amplified expression of emotions he could not be rid of.

"Go deeper."

And with the simple request he did, until at last he was a crumpled mass on the floor of the confessional.

The door to the elevator opened and the voice, simple and calm, said, "Then you have no choice but to revolutionize the world."

He grimaced and he looked up but the doorway was empty, and before he could rise to his feet and walk into the darkness beyond the door another voice called his name. Light replaced the dark and there she was.

He squinted against the light but could not make out the form, just the voice, he could never forget such a voice.

"The way has not been cleared for you. You have no path here, Touga."

"Wait," he cried out when he saw her leaving. "Wait, come back. Who are you?"

"Wake up, Touga... Wake and remember... everything that should not have been forgotten."

And so he did.

His first instinct upon waking was to reach for his phone and call Juri, but he stopped himself. He would tell her...later. Yes, he would tell her when his head felt clear and he could truly wrap his mind around what he had seen. He would wait so that he could tell the dream as it was meant to be told.

_In a light of dawning  
__There are whispers that touch my ear  
__There are secrets I don't wish to hear  
__But they are mine  
__They are the definitive mark of time  
__Come the memories of the rose  
__Of the path I clearly chose  
__And all the things I can not forget  
__Things that linger like regret  
__In my dreams I yearn to take them back  
__But I've been frozen, my heart's painted black_

Dread ate the inside of her stomach, because she wanted to wake up, but she couldn't. She wanted to say that it was because of what had been going on at the school. She wanted to think that logically it was just her mind taking in everything and twisting her dreams, but there was solidity to everything around her. There was a sense of memory, and then, of course, there was that voice. She did not want whatever it was the dream was going to give her, but she could not fight the pull. She could not resist the request, or the anguish of that voice as it asked her to speak.

The dream had turned sour when she had begun walking down the corridor lined with chairs, atop each a fairly large card imprinted with a finger pointing the way. At the end of the line was a confessional, with a single chair, and the walls were painted black. Everything was dark, sinister, but oddly comforting. When she sat in the chair the door slid shut, and she felt in that moment she could say anything.

She tried to remember what had brought her there. Something had happened during the day; at school...Was it after fencing practice? Something happened and she felt she needed to talk to someone. She needed an ear that would listen, and she had come...she went to the hall. She had been invited to attend. She had been... And the confessional was dark and the young man's voice was soft, almost electronic and unreal, but there was sense, that lingering touch of emotion that made his voice real.

"Begin," the voice said.

Her normal reaction to conceal and repress lifted. She spoke, almost too softly to be heard, but he heard her. He heard every word. The confessional began to rise.

"Deeper. Go deeper."

And he did not have to ask her a second time, because her quiet manner was lost to anger, a rage intertwined in the depths of sadness that had her in tears on the floor. With her last confession shouted to the darkness the elevator came to a halt and the door opened.

"I see. It appears you have no choice now, but to revolutionize the world."

She stood up but could not look at him. She staggered forward to follow, but her arm caught on the doorway. She hesitated.

"The way for you has been prepared. You need only follow the path."

"What path?"

An androgynous voice from behind her whispered, "_This_ path that gives you a new heart."

And she couldn't remember the rest. She couldn't remember anything except a sharp stabbing pain in her heart, and then nothing at all, nothing at all but Kozue's voice telling her that it was just a dream. It was only a dream.

_This bit of haze creates in me a maze  
__It covers me in doubt as I begin to shout  
__And all that once was real begins to feel  
__Like misery and butterflies  
__Like sticky candy and pretty lies  
__It takes the heart of me and threatens to drown in a sea  
__Show me back to the shore, won't you please show me the door  
__Tell me how I can get back, now that you've colored my heart black_

The sound of a drop of water falling into a shallow pool echoed throughout the room. There was darkness and nothing more. No light seemed able to penetrate through the veil of shadow that resided there. And then as the black was just drawing into a deeper silence voices marked the void and filled it with a blinding light.

"I don't like using them this way. This isn't they way I do things. Can't we just tell them the truth?"

"If simply telling them were enough then I would not have dragged you into this. We can't simply let the memories die. They should never have been forgotten."

"But this isn't right. This is the way he would have done things."

"No, he would never understand why they have to remember."

"I barely understand."

"One hundred students...one hundred souls marked for something that we can not let occur. If we did then everything else was for nothing."

"But is it right to involve them?"

"No, but they're the strongest. They're the ones who can help us put this right."

"A revolution...is that what this is for?"

"No, this is for memory. We do this...we do this to make sure it never happens again."

"Then I'll agree to continue, but-"

"I understand."

"It loses its purpose if they get hurt. If they are hurt-"

"We will find another way. Please...trust me."

"I do... Even after everything I do."

To be continued...


	6. Letters, Rings, Roses, and Princes

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 6: Letters, Rings, Roses, and Princes  
****Rating: PG-13  
**_**Poetry is mine  
**_**Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

The letter had been waiting for her in her mailbox. She had taken leave of her bed earlier than normal, because of... Well, she disliked calling it a dream, but that was all it was, a very terrible dream. It made her understand, in more ways than she was comfortable with, how the other students who had experienced such things felt. What bothered her about the dream though, was that she could not remember it in absolute detail. She could only pick out bits and pieces, scraps of memory, scattered and dissonant.

Upon picking the letter up Juri opened it, reading it almost too quickly, and then after she had started walking for her classes and realizing she had about an hour to spare, she took the time to really let the words sink beneath her skin. Some of it frightened her. Some of it made her worry. The whole of it fueled her desire to search for answers.

_Juri,_

_Thank you for letter. I was happy that you should think of me so soon. I'm doing as well as I can here, but despite my wanting, the change of scenery... I fear the dreams are still just as bad, I think that, maybe, they've gotten worse. _

_Your letter was longer than I thought it would be, but then, reading it I could tell you were writing as if your were trying to decide about something. Is it so hard for you to not want to protect me? Is it still that hard for you, to tell me things?_

_I think I understand why you want to, but then again... I know that I don't. So I'm glad, in the only way I can be... that you found it in yourself to tell me the truth. _

_It's hard for me to say, but... I'm sure you'll be happy with her. _

_Did you know that she wrote me as well? She did... and I can not say she was as gentle as you were in your approach, but that's just because she doesn't fear the injury...You always will, won't you? As much as I hate it, I hope that one thing never changes about you. _

_You said, before I left, that you hoped one day I could trust you with something. I know what you meant, but as much as you say you want to know... I don't think you really do. Should I tell you anyway? Why do I have this feeling, that deep down, you already know what I'm going to say?_

_I have given this a lot of thought...in fact I've put this letter away for nearly two days. It's been staring at me from my dresser. I feel a little guilty for not picking it up again sooner. _

_We're friends, aren't we Juri? We used to be close and now, again... we're almost okay again, and then, we're still further apart than ever. Don't hate me Juri. I don't think I could stand that, not again, not because of this. You have to know... it is not something that is easy to write. It would be even harder to say out loud. I feel like a coward having to write you. I feel...but I've wasted enough paper trying to avoid this. I suppose we have that much in common. _

_Sometimes I dream about you, about us. _

_I dream that I find your locket in my room, and the discovery leaves me oddly excited. I feel vindicated in my feelings for you (which then, you must know, I hated you so). But I don't know why... Finding the locket confuses me as well. There's something...something deeper and I remember something. _

_The dream takes me to a dark...It's just a dark little room, Juri, and there is this voice...and I tell it...I say things. I say things that I mean, and yet, they aren't what I mean. I say things that are darker than what I really feel, and yet...How do I say this? _

_Juri... Somewhere deep inside it was the truth and it was freedom to finally be able to say it all out loud. But as freeing as it was to know what sway I held over you, it made me feel sick as well. It was utterly disgusting, because it meant that I was wrong about you. It meant that you weren't just taking pity on poor pathetic me. It meant...it meant you really cared about me. And it was disgusting, because, God, Juri, how could you love me? How could you want something so pathetic? _

_You see how terrible I am? I'm terrible... but it's the past right? And we've moved on passed those times. _

_The worst dreams happen after that part. The worst dreams give me a pain in my chest, like I've been stabbed straight through. And after the pain fades to a small instant lingering... I'm left a cruel person, and... And I like it that way. I enjoy it, because it makes me strong...stronger than you. Stronger than anything I am. _

_The worst parts of the dream are finding you, and confronting you with the locket. The worst part is the pleasure I take in watching you shrink to the truth. They way you almost cower when I start to flirt, and I do... Not for any reason other than that you look so beautiful when you're sad. Seeing you hurt, like that, by me, because of me... I'm surprised I didn't kiss you. _

_But I don't want to kiss you; in the dream what I want from you is in your heart. I take it from you, I pull it right out of your chest, and it's a sword. It's your sword, and your strength, and with that I can change the world. Standing over you with your sword in my hands... There is this swell in my chest of completion and, I don't know... I can't remember...Maybe I do kiss you; it's hard to remember for certain because that part blurs._

_Sometimes...if I can't wake up the dream continues. Sometimes I end up trying to kill someone; I think...I think she's a prince. Isn't that odd...that the prince should be a girl?_

_I never win...I always lose in my dreams, but it's okay because when I lose, sometimes I feel better. Other times when I lose I wake up feeling like nothing changed in me at all, and those are the times that scare me the most. _

_I'm not looking for your advice or forgiveness, Juri. I write these lines and relive my worst dreams because you wanted to know...because you worry. I think...I think you worry too much. They're just dreams. They are just dreams and eventually...well they have to pass. _

_Don't hate me for this. I write that, not knowing why I think you would._

_You're a good friend...one day...One day I hope we can the kind of friends we had always meant to be to each other._

_Most sincerely,_

_Shiori_

_P.S. I'm jealous you know. Don't think I wouldn't be... but I'm... happy for you, at least as much as I can be under the circumstances._

_**Currents bow to the tides of the heart  
**_**_They sway lustily towards the shores  
_**_**And give up everything to rush there  
**__**They lose all force behind their mystery  
**__**Forsaking what they are for what they want  
**__**Or is it for what they desperately need  
**__**And they need answers  
**_**_They need a perspective on change  
_**_**A reason for why they've settled for difference  
**__**Under a bluer sky than the blacker nights they have known**_

The day was hazy and warm. There seemed to be a type of fog hanging over the school that was all heat and it blurred the edges of forms in the distance, bending the shape of the world into contorted figures. As Touga gingerly stepped down the path, passed the library, on the long road towards the older part of the school and the ruins of Numero Hall, he squinted against the glare of the sun. He should have remembered to take his sunglasses off the dresser. He hadn't realized how bright it had gotten since he had been tucked into the shade of classrooms all day.

He stopped for a moment and turned to face the other heap of ruins that were not very far from the hall.

The old fencing hall still smelled of smoke and cinder. He had an urge to go into it and explore. He felt as if, in someway, the ghost that lingered there was calling to him, but he resisted the smoky pull and husky creak of the building. In time he resolved to return, but duty was calling him to a different direction.

It seemed very odd that there should be two places on the campus that had mysteriously gone up in flames. It felt contrived in many aspects, like a plot without reason, but however minute, he supposed that all plots had a purpose, all however, were not great or true.

He moved on and then stopped again as the call of his name caught his ears. He turned to the direction which the voice had come from and smirked incredulously to see an old acquaintance leaning in the shadows of a small tree. He stepped off the path and over to the girl. She stood impatiently, arms across her chest, ocean blue eyes lidded with a sort of irritation.

When he addressed her she grinned wolfishly and said, "It's been a while, Mr. Kiryuu."

"It has, but it isn't as if you've been missing my company."

"Hardly, but then, I've been keeping better company these days."

"Sweeter company," he stated with a touch of added flourish.

She let a chuckle escape from her throat, "She isn't sweet."

"No?"

"Mr. Kiryuu you off all people should realize that she's just gracefully wild." She uncrossed her arms and shrugged, stepping forward as if to leave.

He stopped her arching an eyebrow to ask, "Making sure my intentions are sincere, Miss Kaoru, how very unlike you."

She clicked her tongue and stepped in closer to him, "Listen to me, very carefully, because I won't say it again. This isn't a threat Touga, this is a promise... If you drag her or my brother back into any dealings with the diminished Chairman I will have no choice but find new ways to make your life a living hell."

His eyes narrowed, he did not take kindly to such "promises". He looked her deep in the eyes, "Given your past reputation, I think I should be more worried about the dealings you would drag them into."

"Well it's nice to know we don't trust each other," she paused and then said, "If anything happens her or my brother because of these dreams I'm going to blame you. Nothing he had anything to do with is worth exploring further."

A smirk perked at the corner of his mouth and he nodded adding, "I have no intentions of dragging your brother into anything, but I can not control Juri. She's too smart and worries too much to keep her nose out of this. Speaking of dreams... have you told your brother about them?"

She bit at the inside of her lip and then smiled, "I'll see you around. My promise stands though." She began to walk away and then turned sharply on her heels to state, "If you ever kiss her-"

He laughed, "Dear girl, before you could lay a finger on me she'd have me laying face down in the mud."

Touga watched as Kozue ambled away and shook his head. That was certainly a new experience for him, but then Kozue Kaoru was always very straight forward about her intentions. Even if her threat was presumptuous and a tad infuriating, it presented her full opinion on things, and cleared up any doubt in his mind about her past connections. The girl may not have been a top student, but she was not stupid, in fact she was almost too street wise and observant for her own good.

With a deep breath he continued his trek to Numero Hall.

Juri had arrived first and was already poking around the rubble, she gave him a courteous nod and continued her searching until he stepped over to her and playful recalled his encounter with Kozue.

The fencer sighed and shook her head, "I can't exactly blame her reaction, however, perhaps I should not have told her about what I was doing."

"Yes, why did you do that?"

"You know as well as I do that she is smarter than she likes to let on. She doesn't do it often, but the way she speaks about her past sometimes, it's a wonder she doesn't have this school on its knees."

Touga was intrigued, "Explain that a little more please."

She paused and looked over and him smiling softly, "She has a knack for gathering information."

"Oh, no doubt."

"No, Touga, I'm serious... You and I we're pretty good, but she knows all the little dark corners of this school. She's lingered in them for a long time and with the kind of teacher I'd never want to take a lesson from," she said and continued her searching.

He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to imagine anything that Akio Ohtori could have, or would have taught someone like Kozue. It was hard enough living with the lessons he had been given, even if they seemed and felt like things he wanted at the time.

The building was barren of anything. Too much of it was in ashes to be suitable, he couldn't piece together where the confessional would have been located. And suddenly, he remembered his dream, he was about to mention it when he noticed Juri standing very still. She was not trembling. She stood in the rigid pose of someone who would tremble if they weren't so very strong and stubborn. It was as if her body absolutely refused to show the fear it felt.

He stepped over to her and she turned to greet him palm outstretched and he had to fight from taking a step backwards. Because he didn't want to be anywhere near what she held, understanding all too well the fear he had sensed in her just moments before. It wrapped up around him and threatened to extinguish his pride. He let his expression wash to stoic, and wondered how he must look to his friend.

She took a deep breath and then swallowed before saying in a tone that wanted to quaver, "I think we're in a bit over our heads."

"I think," he replied in very much the same manner, "I would have to agree."

He stepped forward and picked up one of the two objects in Juri's hand. It was a ring. More specifically and importantly it was a rose signet ring, but the metal was completely black, singed to the point that the ash was lacquered on, and irremovable. Even the rose quartz inlay had a darkness to it in the places where it actually remained; many of the places where the inlay should have been were vacant.

"Duelists died in this building," she stated. "Do you remember how old this building is?'

"No, but we need to find out."

They were very still for a long time and then Juri said, "What do we do with these?"

"We leave them here," he said firmly.

She shook her head, "If we leave them others may find them." Her eyes shut tightly as a thought occurred to her that she did not want to mention but then whispered, "And what if there are more left?"

He didn't have a reply.

"About ninety-eight left, do you think?"

"I-"

She closed her hand tight around the ring in her hand, "It's unforgivable. Something like this is completely unforgivable."

"Juri?"

"Unforgivable, Touga... We took risks when weaccepted our rings. We worked with live steel, but the goal and target was always clear...You aim for the rose. You aim for the rose and do as little damage as possible, and we all could manage that because _we _have the skill to pull something like that off. This... this is cowardice and for what?" She looked at him and there was a chill in her gaze, "What is there to gain, even in that stupid game...what is there to gain in taking the lives of others?"

He shook his head, "I don't know Juri, but we can find out."

He moved to put his hand on her shoulder but she edged away. He had never seen her that angry. He had seen her in anger, but this; this was near white knuckled rage. He pocketed the ring that he had in his hand, and waited for her to make a move. There was something, something that felt off about her, and it wasn't just the anger. She was taking it too personally, or maybe that wasn't it. Maybe he was just not taking it personally enough. After all if it was so easy to dispose of one set of duelists, how hard would it have been to dispose of them as well? Was there ever a line in the duels that could not be crossed? Was there ever a boundary? There probably was not.

She took a deep breath and seemed to relax a little more. She pocketed the ring as well but before she took a step to leave she said very firmly, "I swear to God, if I _ever_ meet that man again... I'll kill him."

He nodded, "You would not be short on allies willing to assist you."

She huffed, "A prince would not ask assistance."

"No, a prince would not, but you know, a prince would offer to help."

She crossed her arms over her chest and her shoulders rolled forward. He reached out again and this time she did not shy away from his hand on her shoulder.

"The library will close soon if we don't leave now," Juri whispered.

"The research can wait. Juri... Would you...care for dinner?"

"Only if you're buying."

He smiled and clapped his hands together, "Then it's a date," quickly amending, after receiving a scathing look, to add, "in a completely non-romantic and platonic way."

_**She dreams of darker things  
**__**Of shadows and heartache  
**__**That are beyond repair, is she beyond repair  
**_**_In the darkness, in the shadow  
_**_**She sees beyond herself to deeper things  
**__**She's been touched by a void of dreams  
**__**And the souls that they capture cry for revenge  
**__**She's been cursed by justice  
**__**Oh you think you understand but your dreams are so different  
**__**Oh you think you know the plot but you were given light  
**__**You were given different things  
**__**She dreams of darker things  
**_**_Because only hope can find a way through the black  
_**_**To the true colors of a ghostly rose**_

He carried his concern from dinner all the way home with him. He didn't want to worry, but he did. All those dreams, and now both he and Juri had dreamt something similar. As much as he would have liked to waive it all off as a coincidence, there were just too many signs to ignore. His dream was different than Juri's. He had light and she had darkness at the end. He had a bad feeling about it, and it coupled with the distress of finding those rings.

He thumbed the ring in his pocket. When the duels were over all the duelist tossed their rings away into the fire and then they had taken the ashes to the river. Was it such a futile thing trying to toss away what you once were so that you could become something better?

He was undecided.

Touga stopped by his sister's room and was about to knock and check up on her, but the girlish giggles from the other side of the door kept him from completing the task. It made him happy that she was doing things with her friends, but he wished he could have had a good night talk with her. He could have used it, the lovely a trivial report of Nanami's day.

When he was younger and hating junior high, or troubled from over hearing something his parents were arguing over, he would always go and talk to his sister about her day. She would eagerly tell him every little detail. She soaked up the attention from him like a sponge, and he realized as he grew older that it was because she, and he too, couldn't get the exact attention they craved from their parents.

The horrible fates of rich children, their parents ship them off to a boarding school, and expect them to grow up and appreciate what they've been given.

He chuckled to himself. Things could have been worse. He was lucky to be so financially sound at his age.

As he sat on his bed he noticed a letter sitting on his pillow. He took it in his hands and grinned when he saw who it was from.

When he opened the letter a small wooden carving of a leaf, painted gold, fell out into his hands. As he read the letter he found himself extremely amused, and suddenly very obligated to fulfill the request the letter asked of him.

To be continued...


	7. The Wind Swept Leaf and the Shadows Grow...

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 7: The Wind Swept Leaf and the Shadows Grow in the Distance  
****Rating: PG-13  
**_**Poetry is mine  
**_**Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its character do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

"It's nearly ready to begin. We just need this one thing to happen and it will start."

The voice pierced through the black void of shadow and illuminated a corner of the darkness with a spark of light. A drip of water hitting a still pool echoed briefly in the distance before a sigh emerged, causing a spark of light in the opposite end of the void.

The voice of the sigh replied, "I know."

"Once we begin we can not go back. It has to continue until we reach the end."

"I know."

"I am only reminding you because... I know how you feel about her." There was a twinge of remorse and soft jealousy in the statement.

"If there were someone else...but there is no one else."

"There may yet be, if we look."

"I do not want to see her hurt. I wish there was another, but-"

"So you are resolved to continue?"

"I am."

"Then it shall be done." There was a long pause, a moment when the brief placement of light dulled back into nothingness and then the first voice said, "They're strong, very strong... and this will only make them stronger."

"I hope we are doing the right thing."

"There is nothing else that could be done. This is all we can do... to save them, and for good."

_**Importance fades to  
**__**Gratification fades to  
**_**_Servitude fades to  
_**_**Jealousy fades to  
**__**Obsession fades to  
**__**Illusion fades to  
**__**The beginning  
**__**And the beginning is black  
**__**It is the drop of water in a still pool  
**__**It is a rose poisoned by  
**__**The importance of gratification  
**__**The servitude of jealousy  
**__**The obsession of illusion  
**__**Leading to the darkest emotions of the soul  
**__**Leading to...  
**__**Death...the death of a rose**_

At first he was not sure where to begin looking. Even Saonji, had the sense to admit in his letter that he could not remember where the girl's dorm was located. He was fairly certain it was off campus and nearer to the town, but again, he admitted his failure to remember. So, Touga was left research the problem.

In an unexpected twist in his search he had run into Kozue again, who after a bit of blunt discussion told him where the girl's dorm was.

"How is it you know where she's at?"

"There are some things, I'm sure even you can live without knowing. But let's just say in an act of charity I did someone a favor and delivered the girl a bundle of roses," Kozue replied and then quickly trotted off.

There was something slightly sinister about that answer, which he tried desperately to ignore as he followed the directions given to him to the dorm in question. When he read the name on the door he felt he should have recognized it. After he had knocked and the girl answered the door, he felt deeply ashamed for having ever forgotten her. How could he forget her? How could he so quickly dismiss that little spark and shine of a girl that was regrettably forgettable in appearance, but so notably memorable for her spunk and more importantly, for the person that was her best friend?

He wondered if the girl remembered him. He wondered if she remembered the prince, but before he could ponder any further, the brown eyed, ordinary girl spoke, arms akimbo, and that spark jumping into her tone as nearly offended by his presence.

"Make it quick Mr. President," and the she huffed and shook her head, apologizing, "Sorry. That was a bit rude, but I... Come in."

He nodded and thanked her. He looked around her room and it was the room of an ordinary student, who had average grades, and an average outlook. A million and one invisible love letters all unopened scattered across the floor, hidden by something almost too escapable for words, until suddenly it hit. Like a wash of fresh air, her spirit, and the kind of courage only a girl like her could muster when her closest friend was miserable. Only a girl as ordinary and yet irascible as Wakaba Shinohara would have the gall to tell him to get lost and leave her friend alone.

She looked him over curiously and then said, "So what can I do for you?"

"I beg your pardon, but someone had requested I-," he stopped and then dug in his pockets for the trinket. He held it out and continued, "Mr. Kyouichi Saonji requested that I deliver this to you. He said it was a trifle, but that it was all he could afford to offer you."

With a deep breath the girl took the small wooden barrette in her hands. She lingered over the detail of the design and the soft golden, almost brown, color of the paint and then whispered, "Jerk."

"I-"

"Don't get cocky, I meant him," she cut in quickly, adding, "Sorry, but...I just..."

"He said he owes you much for your kindness."

"Does he? Well, does he say why he couldn't give this to me himself?"

Touga shrugged, "He has no excuse for himself. Perhaps...perhaps he is not ready for your forgiveness."

She grinned and shook her head.

Touga started to turn so leave but she stopped him.

"Where is she?"

He stopped in his tracks and turned to face the girl, blue eyes searching for something he could say, but he had nothing. He did not know, and she picked up on his struggle for an answer, sitting quickly on her bed with a sigh that marked her concern and sadness.

"I'd hoped you would know. I miss her, and if anything happened to her-"

"You'd have every right to be upset with us." He stood silent for a moment and then said, "It's poor consolation, but would you like his address. He's been traveling a lot, so it may have changed, but I'm sure if you wrote him the letter would-"

"That would be nice. I could tell him off for not coming here himself." She looked up at him and after looking him over said, "I still think you're an ass for making her feel like she had to be something she was not... Thank you for this, though, it shows you have some character."

He nodded and began to exit, mentioning as he turned the handle to the girl's door, "I'll send you his address. Look for it in your mail box."

"If you forget I'll hunt you down."

A sly grin snaked across his face, "I might look forward to something like that."

Wakaba merely rolled his eyes and watched him exit.

_**All the leaves are falling  
**__**Their color turning brown  
**__**All the world is changing  
**__**Like it's dying to come around  
**__**What we say under this cover  
**__**What we wish under this sky  
**__**It is a poor consolation for dreaming  
**__**And a pull to the wondering of why  
**__**If ever I see her  
**_**_If ever we meet again  
_**_**I will make sure she know this  
**__**That she was my greatest friend**_

"Who is she," Juri's question came in and hit him out of the blue.

They had been sitting in silence after a brief discussion about dreams, and letters. The chill of the older part of the library snaking up around their bodies and causing involuntary shivers. He was grinning and then he stopped. He took the question in and immediately went for the obvious reply.

"What do you mean?"

He watched as her hazel eyes impatiently reflected shock at what seemed to be his denial.

"You've had a dubious smirk on your face since you arrived here, and there are few things in this world that would make you do such a thing, for so long, and without the apparent knowledge that you are doing so," Juri stated and then asked again, "So, who is the girl?"

"It's nothing," he defended.

She arched an eyebrow critically as she pulled another book off a stack and brought it closer.

He shook his head, "Honestly, it's...nothing."

The arch of her eyebrow sprang a little higher as she watched him speak, and saw that smirk, a waiting smile, slink back into place. She shook her head, shrugged, and brought her attention back to the book in front of her. She flipped a few of the pages and listened to the silence of his own concentration on a book, but it was not on that book. His thoughts were somewhere else. She waited a beat and then, put the book aside, sitting back into her chair when she felt he was going to finally give in.

"It was just... It was a breath of fresh air."

"I see."

He rolled his eyes briefly before chiding, "No you don't. You just say that to get me to say more."

"If you insist," at this point a smirk of her own was desperately trying to hide itself at the corner of her mouth.

"It was her friend... that girl she used to hang around with before she was pulled into dueling."

Juri nodded in recollection, and slightly embarrassed memory. She had spoken with the girl once. She'd been surprised by the girl's guff, but most importantly her devotion...her love for a prince, that was...Well it just seemed so pure.

Touga ignored his friend's pointed silence and continued, "I mean, she really doesn't like any of us... Well, I suppose she has a certain like for Saonji, after all but really... She can't stand me."

"You have an odd habit of attraction to girl's who don't care for you." She folded her arms across her chest and then said, "But maybe it isn't the dislike that you find so compelling."

"Being popular in this school...well, you know what it's like. The girl's will put up anything from you just to get close. They'll blindly agree to whatever you say but she... She is not someone who would let anyone get away with not being himself."

Juri sighed, "I would tell you not to fall in love, but I doubt that's the right reaction. She remembers the prince then?"

"Yes, she does. She's worried, but then who among us is not?"

"Will you pursue her?"

Touga waved the question off, "Please, give me some credit, I could hardly pursue her. She'd shove the first bundle of roses I sent her way into my face and slam the door."

"Sounds like a match made in heaven," she chuckled.

"Shouldn't you be doing some research?"

"I should, as should you."

_**There is a voice in the darkness  
**__**It calls my name in timely beats  
**__**It chills my soul at a stately rhythm  
**__**Collecting all fears  
**__**Encouraging my doubts  
**__**Crawling up my spine  
**__**Until at last it settles under the skin  
**__**And I heed its warning not to resist  
**__**But then I do what I must to tear it off me  
**__**I do what I must  
**__**And break the shadows like glass  
**__**The darkness dawning light**_

Juri walked back to her dorm and stretched as she moved along. She had spent hours in the library with Touga researching, reading, and skimming through volumes of year books and other Ohtori histories for a mention of the fire that had destroyed Numero Hall. They had yet to turn up anything of use, but there were still many books left, not to mention the newspapers. The only thing she really had picked up was that the school was older than anyone really thought it was, that and the fact that the books went to great lengths to avoid discussing the area's ancient history. That made her vaguely uneasy.

Under the paler light of the moon she picked up the shadowed figure of Kozue sitting on a bench just before her dorm. She strode up to the girl, who was hugging her knees into her chest in an attempt at comfort.

The fencer laid a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder and was taken by the remnants of tears that stained the girl's face.

"What's happened?"

The girl sighed, bit at the corner of her lip, and then replied, "I told him about my dreams.

"I see." She took a quick seat next to the girl, who reflexively leaned away from any contact.

"He hates me."

"I'm sure he doesn-"

"Fine, it isn't hate...It's disgust then. He didn't have to say. It was all over his face. It isn't fair. He should not have been holding onto such high ideals for me," she sighed heavily and continued, "He should have known I was so far in the dark no one could reach me. I'm a wild thing...why would he... And you watch...you just watch Arisugawa, he'll try and act like it never happened. He always does that."

There was silence and then Juri closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. She took in a deep breath and then found something to say.

"Kozue, your brother loves you. For as long as I have known him all he has ever wanted is to be close to you again. He reaches out for light in order to give some of it to you. Even if you throw it right back at him, he wants you to know that it's there and waiting for your return. It's a bit naïve of him, I have to admit, but it's his way. He'll come around...and... Don't be so sure he'll let this go. I'm sure he'll have something to say about it, if not to you, then to me."

"And what will you tell him," she asked, almost scoffing.

Hazel eyes opened. She looked over at the girl who was sliding away from her, even though she really wanted to slide closer. She gave a soft smile and said, "I'll advise him to speak of it with you. This is your time to put things...the way you'd like between yourself and your brother. Talk to him, and be prepared to listen when he has a reply."

"Is it nice up there on your white horse?"

The fencer shook her head, "I'd feel more comfortable on the ground, holding the one I care for close to me."

Kozue grinned, "And play in the woods."

She stood as if to leave and then turned to Kozue with, "And show her the kind of light that can only be found in wild places."

There was a deep swell of emotion that burned under Kozue's chest as she watched Juri walk away. It caught her off guard and offered a word that she was not sure she was ready to fully accept. She never wanted the arms of a prince around her, but she never knew, she never guessed that a panther was the prince of the wild.

With a deep breath she trotted off to follow Juri to her dorm.

_**These thorns leave scratches  
**__**They scar up the skin  
**__**Marring perfection for pain to sink in  
**__**Strawberry gashes  
**__**Red vine lashes  
**__**Oh lovely feeling it permeates the touch  
**__**You kiss along them  
**__**Your lips erase them  
**__**Under your guidance I leave it all behind  
**__**I want no roses  
**__**I need no thorns  
**__**There are other flowers who will not leave me scorned  
**__**I'll sit by the river  
**__**I'll lean into this hollow tree  
**__**And as the storms rain down darkness  
**__**These branches will protect me**_

A drop of water in darkness, echoed into the void. The ones that waited there released slow breaths, haut with need. And then as if waking the sighing of lust washed under the sound of water dripping into a calmer pool.

"It's time. Everything has been set."

"All the cards are out on the table."

"I would have said pieces."

"They are not pawns. Never forget that. I am not playing with them. This is not a game to me."

"I understand. Now, where do we start?"

There was a sigh, "We start at the beginning. We start with Death and then we quickly move to Illusion."

"And the others will fall in place shortly after. And then..."

"Then we end it."

"And what do we call this end?"

"The end...is ever as the beginning. It ends with Death. Shouldn't you already know this?"

"I do. I just want to make sure we're thinking along the same lines."

Another sigh, "I don't want-"

"They won't be hurt. I promise."

To be continued...


	8. The Gathering Tides of Darkness and the ...

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 8: The Gathering Tides of Darkness and the Grave of a Lonely Man  
**_**Poetry is mine  
**_**Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its characters do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

Though there was no way either could have known it, the dark dreams of confessional elevators, and a soothing robotic voice haunted Touga and Juri at the same time in the night. The dreams went exactly as they had before for each of them but, this time when they woke, simultaneously, dripping with sweat, there was an immediate dread that filled them with great fear. They breathed heavily in the darkness and as if by mental link they turned their heads towards the direction of the other's dorm. They whispered to the darkness, an almost secret pact. They vowed something they were not sure they had control enough to keep, but they had to swear it. They had to say out loud as to catch the ears of the listening gods.

"I will not harm you."

And while Touga had to get out of bed for a moment and calm the beating of his heart before he could find a way back into it, Juri was lulled back into sleep by kisses from a girl who smelled perennially of a multitude of spices and clove cigarettes.

They were not sure what was happening, but in that shared moment of mocking coincidence Juri Arisugawa and Touga Kiryuu knew one thing for certain... Something had begun. Something that was darker than their dreams could fully imply.

And then in the morning they had their suspicions confirmed.

It started like the first beats of a giant storm, quiet and then, there was the down pour. The first student had approached Juri on her way into a class, which she subsequently missed. And from there things just grew. The students would seek them out, both of them at once, or individually, as if under a spell of compulsion. They wouldn't know why they had to do it, but they felt that if they didn't they would have been haunted forever, haunted by the terror of dreams, dreams of dark confessionals and an unseen voice prodding them on and asking them to, "Go deeper."

By the end of the day Juri and Touga found themselves exhausted and alone in the library. They never even asked each other what was going on. They already knew.

Juri messaged her temples for a moment before shaking her head and speaking softly, "How many do you think?"

"Nearly a hundred, but a little less." He leaned back into the chair he was sitting on.

"I would give about the same estimate."

He nodded slowly and then said, "I think I could have handled it except for-"

"Who?"

He grimaced, "Her friend, the prince's friend. I had gone back to see her because she wanted Saonji's address and when I got there-"

"I see," pointed concern marked her features and she continued softly, "Is she going to tell him about her dreams?'

He shrugged, "I suppose she would want to-" He looked over at his friend and tried not to grit his teeth as he continued, "The confession seems to be the important thing for them."

"I told you before, Touga, these dreams want to be confessed. It's like they're searching for remembrance. I had thought others would seek us out but this... All in one day... This is not something I'd consider a good sign."

"I understand your point, but what is it leading to?"

They locked gazes and a single word drifted into their heads, but they couldn't speak it out loud. They wouldn't dare.

"We should... We should start looking at the archived newspapers," Juri whispered.

He nodded and they left to study the archives for the clues they needed. And when what they sought so readily presented itself to them the coincidence sparked an edge of anger in them both.

_**Waking clouds the mind in a mist of certainty  
**__**It drifts across like salvation to give a poke at reality  
**__**But nothing here is real, nothing here is true  
**__**It is all the whim of his illusions  
**__**It is all the power of the things he once was, and wishes to be  
**__**I am the product of dream gone to waste  
**__**I am the subject of illusion lost within itself  
**__**Lost here for wanting her love  
**__**Lost here for needing their love  
**__**This real world you speak of  
**__**This place you call what is right  
**__**It is the grandest of illusions  
**__**It is the empathy of waste  
**__**Darkness shrouds the mind  
**__**And the world becomes cloaked in the colors I love  
**_**_The world is the spin of black on maroon touched pink (touched salmon)  
_**_**In the end the sacrifice was worth the cost  
**__**In the end the love never died  
**__**In the end I can crawl in the black and pull the dreams of this world around me  
**__**Memory for memory because remembrance is immortality  
**__**It is what he could never understand**_

"Professor Nemuro," the name slide off her tongue and into the cool of the even sky.

Touga stood next to her and merely regard the unmarked monument with slight distain. There was a foul taste building in his mouth and he felt remarkably uncomfortable. He felt as if he did not belong there. But then how could anyone feel they belonged in such a sad and lonely place.

It was just a track of flowers, a small patch of color along the dull of what used to be Ohtori white. It was graying now, almost yellowing under the harsh beat of the sun. An unmarked stone to note the passing of a man the old newspaper hailed as a genius. A man of such talent in numbers there was nothing he could not calculate, a man who had lived and taught in the hall, and a man who distinctly wore the sign of a duelist upon his left finger.

The picture in the paper made both instantly anxious, but the sudden appearance of the yearbook with the complete picture and student listing of the hall made them feel worse. A hundred students all in rows, under the celluloid print, all wearing the same ring, and all destined to die in a terrible fire. The paper deemed it an accident, but neither Touga nor Juri had the strength to believe in such a lie. They saw passed it and to the man responsible.

"Then the chairman was not the one who-"

"Are we to believe, Touga, that he was never involved with this? We can't prove it, but do we even need to? The students that lived in that hall were searching for something, and once it was found they were no longer needed. But why doesn't anyone really remember?"

He took a deep breath and then stated, "Because what is forgotten can not live on. Memory is a key to immortality."

Juri gave him a strange sideways glance and then shrugged. A hollow feeling began to pound at her chest. It was a sensation she had not felt in months. It was not something she had felt since-

And a wandering hand reached up to her chest for something that was no longer there.

"I-I need to go."

"Wait, what's wrong?'

She shook her head, "Nothing I just...need to go."

He reached out for her but she slipped away. She walked but there was an expedience to her gait. It told of fear and something...Something that could not quite be placed.

He looked again at the miniscule monument, and he felt a chill in the warmer air around him. Standing there, looking so discreetly, upon someone so forgotten, he had an urge; it was a calling to something like his dreams. With a light and causal step he moved towards the desolate hall. It was not so far away.

He wanted to say he was shocked when, to his eyes, the place appeared intact. He wanted to say that, but he could not. He knew it would be complete. It was an illusion, but illusions in his experience were often more real than they ought to be...Especially on the Ohtori campus where the light and shadow always seemed to breath life into the inanimate.

He entered the door.

The vast and poorly lit entrance corridor stretched on into the distance. Chairs lined the way, and white cardboard with the picture of a hand pointing dotted along until there was a bend, and ultimately the elevator. Something in his gaze was not his own when he looked down that hallway. Something in his smile seemed rather robotic, and stiff. His blue eyes caught on a questionnaire that sat by the front desk. It had his name on it and without so much as a blink of the eye...He filled it out...He filled it out completely.

_**Don't you know they all fall down  
**__**Every prince becomes a clown  
**__**And to the wandering of their eyes  
**__**Everyone is hypnotized  
**__**By the light of wondering  
**__**By the dark of dawning  
**__**And into the depths they go  
**__**Rising, falling, calling out again  
**__**They found the space  
**_**_The waiting land  
_****_They found a grave of a living man  
_**_**And in that tomb buried neatly in the ground  
**__**Were the remains of a prince who'd lost his crown  
**__**But it was all lies and deceit  
**__**This prince you see was very unique  
**__**Two sides to every coin are there  
**_**_Two sides vie for power, though one is unaware  
_**_**And the things that die with a prince's defeat  
**__**Well, they are the trophies of the wicked's relief**_

They watched in the shadows, as much as two un-embodied beings can watch anything. The sound of their voices were all that really existed at one moment or another, briefly accompanied a splash of light, or the sound of water dripping into a still pool. It was not that they were without form. It was that, they had to let loose the physical in order to attain what was too them... an eternity.

They were watching Juri Arisugawa just in that moment. They clung to the darkness of the tress and shadows cast by the setting of the sun. If they had actual eyes, it might be that they were watching with great intent. They watched though and found little ways inside of the fencer, who was floating on the edge of reason.

"She's resisting it." The voice seemed almost proud of the effort.

"I told you she was strong. Besides the dreams of the others seem more like memory to her than they do to him."

"Well, he was absent for most of it, and then just after he came back and-"

"He is no longer ruled by such forces."

"I kno- Where is she off to?"

Juri stumbled and caught herself on a tree branch. She held herself there, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and fought memory. She fought what she new had really happened. She fought what had been replaced by something different. She fought the sting of Shiori's little hands finding a way into her heart and taking what was hers.

All those dreamers, who were duelists for a moment, they thought they reached inside and pulled out someone's strength. They thought it was all they needed to defeat the prince. They thought the power was all there was. How could they know? How could they even begin to fathom that what they were taking was not just strength, but everything. It was everything someone was. It was all fears and hopes. It was strengths and weaknesses. It was the very soul, and the souls of duelists were powerful weapons indeed. But powerful, or no, they were souls who had already been defeated. They had already lost, and so how could they hope to win again in the hands of another?

She took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes. She felt like she was being watched, but knew there was no one around.

"She senses us."

"She would." It was the proud voice again. "She notices a lot about others. She's only blinded to those she holds dear. She won't forgive this, not even of us." There seemed to be a sad smile that sprang up and died as the sentence moved along. It wilted on the vine of sound.

"But will she notice the important thing?"

The shadows cooled their conversations and died away into whispering winds.

Juri didn't want to remember. In her dreams she was told to forget, but the dreams did not want to be forgotten. And that was the thing. It was all about-

"Memory," she whispered. "He said it first though, 'Memory is immortality.' Memory is that thing. What you remember of someone is what makes them live on. It gives voice to the dead. And we can not forget, the memory, even if we lose the names..." She paused and released a breathy chuckle, continuing, "Because even if the name is lost, the story lives, and the souls along with it... and here is myth. Tales of princes and princesses... We remember them and they find a new kind of life... They find eternity."

She took a quick seat in the grass and laughed. It was such simple magic, even if she did not understand how he had done it. Such a base trick, and laughable to the last, because-

Her eyes went wide as the thought struck home, and the shock was enough to let something else seep through. Her vision went dark for a moment and she stood up. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ring. Once upon a time that ring had been destroyed by fire, she knew it somewhere deep inside, but now, to her eyes, it was pristine.

She slipped it onto her left finger, and a grin forced itself into being that was something a little more than wicked.

To be continued...


	9. Phoenix Fire: The Dark Duelists Rise

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 9: Phoenix Fire: The Dark Duelists Rise  
****Rating: PG-13  
**_**Poetry is mine  
**_**Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its characters do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

Kozue had an instinct for situations. She could feel the dregs of danger begin as slow pricks along her skin. Despite the warnings however, she moved closer to the young woman. She reached out a hand to touch upon the curled shoulders and did not leap back in fear when cold death settled behind hazel eyes turned to met her.

"J-Juri are you-"

The fencer shook her head and then an unsettling grin crept at the corner of her mouth as she replied, "I've never been better." She pulled herself upright and stepped in closer to the girl.

Kozue leaned in to the beginnings of a familiar embrace, and yet there was something, amiss. There was a certain lack of hesitation that Juri no longer seemed to have, and while it would have been a welcomed change, it was far too sudden. There was a slow beat between them and then the embrace furthered its advance until it contorted into the pull of a long and deep kiss. After the moment had passed the wild child found a way to look into the panther's eyes again, and all at once the deadness faded away, replaced by sorrow.

"I'm afraid I'm not myself tonight,"' Juri whispered.

"I see that."

Her voice became very low and solemn, "I'm sorry."

The girl was confused, "For what?"

Juri released a long breath and drew the girl in as if to kiss her, her right hand moving along the girl's blouse to rest at the heart. It beat once and then Juri leaned in close to whisper, "For this, love."

Kozue would have screamed except that the sound was squelched by the lips of the young woman that held her. The girl's smaller frame contorted in Juri's arms for a minute, then slowly it appeared, and with the greatest of care the fencer removed it from her lover's chest.

When it was over she carried the girl to a safe place and then fled towards the orchards, a tamed collection of trees that could have been a forest if it wanted to be. When at last she could run no further she fell to her knees, fist tightly clenching the object she had removed. It was a sword. The finest rapier she had ever held. The hand guard curved into an almost wild and unorganized pattern, but any closer inspection would have shown how purposeful the design was. A fire of rage built around what she wanted to keep as stoic calm, but her heart could not contain such things. She cried out, and her anger and sorrow were nearly enough to pull the trees from their roots.

"Why did have to be you," she sobbed. "Why did it have to be you? This is no way to keep revolution! This is not how you save eternity, or memory!"

She swallowed hard, and then closed her eyes. In the distance she could hear footsteps approaching. She opened her eyes, and when she saw who it was she gritted her teeth, jumped up sword in hand, and charged.

_**Memory is the thing  
**__**It is the tie that binds  
**__**It is because of what you would not let go  
**__**That you were left behind  
**__**Memory is the thing  
**__**It is the key to all  
**__**It is that reaching so much for the past  
**__**That you never see your fall  
**__**You have to learn  
**__**You have to know  
**__**You must keep the memory precious always  
**__**But you must always learn to let it go  
**__**Memory is the thing  
**__**Memory is the key  
**__**If anything here should be forgotten  
**__**Then it might as well never be  
**__**The lesson is balance  
**__**The lesson is control  
**__**It is the knowing when  
**_**_And then without regret  
_**_**It is the letting go**_

The elevator rose slowly in the waking dream, the illusion formed from stardust and darkness. He spoke as he had once before in his nightmares. And the more he spoke, the more real his surroundings became. They took up a solid footing into reality, as if they had always been, and had never been destroyed. The voice compelled him onward and when at last he gave up to his finally raging confession the elevator stopped.

The elevator stopped and then the dream he thought he was going through the motions of turned on him. A shadow stood in the doorway of the elevator. And the voice spoke very calmly, "I see, well then you have no choice. You must revolutionize the world. The path has been laid before you."

Touga stammered to his feet. He moved forward and felt that his actions were not his own. Manipulation, and puppet strings seemed to be everything that surround him as he stepped through the elevator doors and into the dark room of the crematorium. He shook himself into a state of wakefulness, and though fully aware the images still gathered around him. He looked over at the computer like man who was leaning against the far wall, near a long row of shoes. The wall was dotted with what appeared to be tombs engraved with the rose seal. Slowly a tomb began to slide further into the wall, until it vanished completely leaving an empty space, and the burning glow of the crematorium's fire behind it.

The man made a "Tsk" noise and turned his head to look at Touga. A half hearted attempt at a smile tried to make way on the corner of his mouth as he said, "It is useless. None are strong enough to defeat her. There are a hundred failures here. You are just going to be one more."

"What is this place?"

"It is the edge of a path."

"Who is doing this? Why are these-"

"Dreams are the key to memory forgotten. She tries to fight the inevitable."

"And what is that?"

"She can not see that everything must fade. Everyone will forget eventually."

Touga shook his head, "But that does not mean we have to forget it all and so soon."

The man frowned, the man who was, Touga began to realize Professor Nemuro. "You're just like her. No wonder you'll lose."

"Like who?"

He shut his eyes, "Tokiko."

Touga was going to ask more but then he felt it, the sharp stabbing pain in his chest that felt like a million swords, a million thorns being pushed into him. He fell to his knees and tried to seek the form of the person who had assaulted him, but there was no one. There was only a voice, a voice he clearly recognized.

"And now the end truly begins... and the revolution can take shape."

His voice failed him and his eyes began to shut. He crumpled to the floor and the voice, it watched him there. It let him have the rest for a second or so, before speaking again.

"You have entered this space as nothing more than a fallen duelist, but you will leave... a prince."

**_Over the edge and we've all fled  
_**_**To that little space behind the heart  
**__**That little part that is increasingly dark  
**__**Darkened by the world as we grow  
**__**Bittered by life as we come to know  
**__**All life's illusions and pretty dreams  
**_**_Our hopes our wants are not what they seem  
_**_**Into the end we all must go  
**__**And what we become there  
**__**Only he really knows**_

As she sprang forward the figure casually moved to the side. He chuckled as she stumbled, and her rage grew as she spun back around for another attack. She lunged fiercely and again he moved casually away, grabbing at her wrist with inhuman strength.

"Don't you know, Juri...This place is nothing but a dream." He pushed her back and she fell. "'Of course that doesn't mean the dream can't harm you. Everything in this school was made to make illusion solid."

She winced as she pulled herself to her feet. He seemed pleased and smiled. It faded away when he noted her ever increasing anger. He shook his head.

"Your emotions are your worst enemy in a fight. They distract you and lead you to make fatal errors. I thought you'd have learned that by now. I thought, I'd taught you better."

Juri's grip around the sword tightened and she shut her eyes. "You can't be here. You...you died."

He shrugged, "We all die eventually. I died, you were there...you held my hand and I was grateful. But remember what I said... even if you're just imagining me it doesn't make me any less of a threat."

"A threat?"

He nodded.

She let her grip loosen on the sword and with a long exhale she felt her anger begin to quiet. He looked as if he had never been ill. He looked better than he had when he was well. He was a dream though, an illusion, and she knew that whatever the reason for his presence she would not be happy with the answer.

Sensing her troubles he spoke, "Ghosts are convenient for certain tasks, the school likes ghosts."

"Why?"

"We are easy to forget."

"So...you are a trap."

He grinned. It was nice to have her contemplating his motives again. He would tell her the truth; it was a good way to resolve things. "I am your test."

"For what?"

"To see if you are worthy." He let the words sink in and watched as she tried desperately to keep her feelings from bursting out all around her. He continued, "Are you worthy to follow her footsteps? Can you be a prince? Can you change the world, Juri?"

She remained silent as her thoughts raged with a thousand curses for whoever was responsible for the events she was now encountering.

"Fault," he said suddenly as if reading her mind. "You can blame the prince; you can blame the end of the world, and the bride. The system is simple really, if you look at it. What makes a revolution stay? What makes it capable of continuing change?"

She had no answer she wanted to give.

"That's right...it's right there on your mind. It's a battle. The fights get smaller, but there is always a battle. If you lose this he gets your memories and the game starts all over again like it had never happened. If you win-"

"We keep fighting for our freedom. What kind of victory is that?"

"If you win, Juri, he'll lose this school. And doesn't that make a difference?"

She shook her head, "This is all wrong. This is a poor way to make things right."

"It is...the only way that it can be done," he replied with a sad shrug. He looked at the sword, "That's a grand piece you have, very sharp, that one I expect, and deadly as well."

"It isn't mine."

He smirked, "No. I thought she was yours. I thought you two-"

"That's enough!" The words echoed through the trees and then she stood up a bit straighter, "If we are to duel, Ruka, then let us duel. If you are my test then you should test me."

He smirked, "I've already been testing you. You care about what happens to those students don't you? Every injury to them was an injury to you. It cut at your insides, because part of you wants to remember."

She thought about Shiori's letter and how, it was not so much a shock as it was a memory. The way she fought against it because she didn't want it to be true. And then, deep inside there was a spark of hate and anger towards those responsible for dragging Shiori into the duels. For using her to such an extent, and the more she thought about it the feeling did, indeed, extend to all the others whose stories she had heard.

Ruka smiled and ran his fingers through his hair, "You think of her instead of the one whose sword is in your hand. That's curious...why, Juri?"

Her eyes narrowed, "It doesn't matter. Any thoughts I have of Kozue you would only try to use against me. You learned that from Touga."

"I learned that from many people...But I see you are restless for this battle...You have been doing very well so far Juri. You might even pass, but you still have all that anger, and all that regret. Those things are what you use to defeat yourself."

She took a defensive stance and waited for him.

"You haven't even asked what the rules are," he chuckled.

"There is no bride to win, no roses on our chests... What other rules could there be expect that this...is a duel. It's a real duel, no protection and no play."

"You learn very quickly, but this duel ends when one of us is completely defeated."

She let a toothy grin slide, "Death is no defeat...It's just the beginning."

"So true."

He opened up his hand and stretched it out into the shadows. A soft light appeared and from it he pulled a sword. He took his stance and stared at her for a long time before he nodded and the duel began.

_**The call rings clear as the Phoenix rises here  
**__**And the purpose is put and we must make no mistakes  
**__**From this moment until the end  
**__**We are duelists  
**__**And duelists are never friends**_

Touga gripped the sword and stared vacantly at the girl he had pulled it from. Somewhere, far in the reaches of his mind, he thought he hated himself for doing this. The feeling never lasted too long though. He closed his eyes for a moment and then stepped out of the girl's dorm. The shadows watched him leave and they were...concerned.

"He's being used and not by us."

"One of them was bound to fall and he...has a history."

"He will not be easy to defeat."

"She'll find away."

The first voice grew sullen, "And the girl...she..."

"There are always risks. This is the only way."

"But Juri was right... It does not excuse us; this is a poor way to keep a revolution. She will need help."

"We must not interfere any further."

"I did not say we would." There was something in the tone that had a hint of plotting behind it, but the other voice did not heed it.

To be continued...


	10. The Palace of Memory: Becoming a Prince

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 10: The Palace of Memory: Becoming a Prince  
****PG-13  
**_**Poetry is mine**.  
_**Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its characters do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

The swords clashed back and forth in an unsteady dance. And it was a dance, a light play, as he toyed with her across the uneven ground of the wild orchard. He was not using his full strength and it annoyed her greatly that he felt he could get away with such a blithe insult to her skill. She lunged forward but instead of striking, as he assumed she would, she kicked out her free leg and knocked his feet out from under him.

He sprang up onto his feet. "That," he chided, "was very bad form."

She blocked a quick slash from him and replied, "This is a duel, and duels like this have no rules."

They pushed back from each other with a slight jump. He was strong, inhumanly so, as he should be considering that he was, after all, a ghost. They came together again moving across the ground, the rules of engagement up in the air as between cuts with their blades they would try to trip, or in one instance make a connecting punch with a free hand. It was a fight as fights were meant to be, wild, gritty, and a bit dirty. Juri wondered how much the sword she held in her hands swayed her method of attack. She wondered what power it could give her.

Ruka took an advantage by pushing Juri to the ground, and she took no time in seeing his blind spot swiping at his legs. He was lucky enough to merely stumble. If she had succeeded, she'd have probably broken his leg.

He chuckled, "Juri, this has been so much fun. I have missed being able to spar with you. But you have to realize something, I'm not really here. I'm an illusion, a rather solid one, but still... I am dead. What do you think will happen when you stab me straight through? I can't die twice. Face it, I'm much stronger than you are and I always have been."

She had moved to her feet, standing defensively, but loosely. She considered what he said and then sighed sadly, "But you're only stronger because I've made you that way, Ruka. This is how I want to remember you. You could barely lift your head up the last time I saw you. You could barely hold my hand. Do you remember?"

He nodded and then it seemed that he was breathing abnormally. He looked...weak.

Juri shut her eyes and then opened them again to continue, "I've always thought of you...as stronger than me Ruka, because you were my teacher. You were my guide and my superior with a sword. I suppose... I could not think of us as equals in that light. Even if I would have been angry to hear anyone say it." She watched him stumble as he moved forward and then said, "But I am your equal, Ruka. I am as strong with a sword as you ever were. I am the fencing captain, and now, I am the teacher."

He dropped his sword and she moved quickly to catch him as he began to fall forward. She gritted her teeth at the sight of seeing him that way. She had been so angry with him for so many things. She hated him for leaving her without a reason, but she felt the reason for his actions press up into her. She saw him as being strong, and he loved her, so he could not let her see him as anything but what she made him. She walked him over to a tree and helped him to sit. She put a hand to his forehead and he winced.

"I am sorry."

He grinned slightly, but looked as if he was in pain, "For what?"

"I should have been more honest with you."

"Ditto." He was fading. His form was losing itself to a ghostly state.

She took in a deep breath and bit back her tears, "You live on in my memory. You live there and you are stronger, and you help me as you used to. There isn't any bad blood there in that memory. There is only everything we had hoped to be."

"And there shall I remain." He winced and then said, "I have to leave. This school has no place for me any longer." He paused and then chuckled, "I suppose this is...my graduation."

There are some things even stoic panthers can not bury into themselves, and so Juri let a tear go. He may have been a test. He may have been just an illusion. But he was still Ruka. He was still that gangly young man who gave her a reason to be happy after she had her heart broken. He was still her very good friend and she loved him, although not the way he wanted.

She shut her eyes, and felt his hand reach up to wipe the tear away.

"Don't worry, Juri. Please, don't worry."

The touch on her cheek faded and she opened her eyes. He was gone.

She stood up, sword in hand, and released a long breath. Memory was the key, but somehow she doubted that such a thing would be of much use for whoever her final opponent would be. She did not let naiveté settle in to make her believe that that was it. Because that was just the test and she had passed it.

"And now that I have passed, what does that make me?"

Ruka's voice whispered near her ear, "It makes you a prince of course. The panther prince, a prince of the wild... "

Startled she turned but there was no one there, only a feather, white and pure, sat on the ground next to her.

_**Fallen angels are we  
**__**With only mercy left to remind  
**__**In this darkness we are called  
**__**To shine light upon the blind  
**__**Fallen angels are we  
**__**With this truth that is so unkind  
**__**Into this world we have been called  
**_**_To usher in change and to shine_**

Touga was not himself, or at least there was a part of him that was not, in his estimation, correct. He looked at the sword in his hand. The sturdy blade that shined in the light and looked as though it could cut through anything and the beauty of the piece was that it was simple. It was an easy design and not anything that would stand out, except for the hand guard which was brass and shaped as a large leaf. There was delicate detail in the hand guard, and there was great care to make it look as realistic as possible. He had not really taken care to notice anything about the sword when he had taken it.

The memory of taking the sword suddenly swelled up around him a tiny hurtful sting, and then it passed.

From the sword he looked to where his opponent had fallen. The ghost was no longer there and somewhere a voice in his head whispered that the ghost had never been there.

He shut his eyes. He opened them and looked up at the castle he new was nothing but an illusion. He knew but he accepted that illusion. He understood that wish he had once held and after defeating the ghost he also knew that it would be possible to have his previous wish come true. All he had to do was give up everything he already had. All he had to do was defeat his next opponent and the castle, the duels, the wishes, dreams and wants of the past could spring back to life.

It would be so easy... but was it what he really wanted? He really did not know any longer.

He could not remember why he had given it all up in the first place. He blinked and the image of a girl cutting through a rose made him sway unsteadily.

He sat on the floor of the arena.

There was someone he wanted to remember but it was fading and being replaced by something he used to wish. And then all he could imagine was what he wanted.

He wanted to revolutionize the world.

_**We go, we go  
**__**Till our fears make us whole  
**__**We try, we try  
**__**Till we feel nothing inside  
**__**And for lack of wanting  
**__**Do we still have our wish  
**__**And for lack of remembering  
**__**Do we still get our wish  
**__**We go, we go  
**__**Till our vision slows  
**__**We fight, we fight  
**__**Till we are lost in the night  
**__**And for lack of trying  
**__**We have lost our true bliss  
**__**And for lack of dreaming  
**__**We come to the end just like this**_

She was trying to remember how to breathe, that simple skill of stilling her nerves before a fight. The first time she had ever been in a fencing competition she nearly hyperventilated because she was so nervous. That was just before she met Ruka, and just slightly after Shiori had left for the first time. She was trying to be cool and a brick wall of confidence, but she was failing. Her sister had come to that match and found her. The only time her older sister had ever been much help to her at all really, because she looked at Juri and said, "You have to remember to breathe, kid."

A long breath escaped her lungs as she exhaled. She shut her eyes and shook her head, and then she opened them and looked down the path. The dueling arena was to the left, and the dorms were to the right.

It would be easy to walk back to the dorms and return the sword back to Kozue. It would mean that things would fall back and chains might return. But did it matter? Should she really care? All she wanted was everything she already had. She wanted to be able to talk to Shiori like she was a friend. She wanted to be on the fencing team and be the best. She wanted to continue to teach Miki as best she could. She wanted to be able chat with Touga and not consider him an enemy...

Who was to say she would not still have that if she did not go to the arena? Who was to say that the chairman had any power at all that was real? Wasn't it all just tricks? Wasn't it all just something he did to try and keep what he already had?

She huffed and stepped towards the right...

Then she spun around on her heels and marched towards the dueling arena, whispering, "Don't worry, you just have to remember to breathe."

_**Dancing down the winter's end  
**__**There a few buds left lingering  
**__**Red of love, power, and blood  
**__**Orange of hope, desire, and change  
**__**They bloom about along the path  
**__**They bloom about as the frost takes them  
**__**They linger here at the end of it all  
**_**_But roses, true, they all must fall_**

She wanted to be surprised when the gates to the dueling arena opened before her, but she wasn't. The droplet of water hit the archaic and blackened ring and the gates folded back as they had always done. Everything was still there, even the lift which looked in working order.

Juri considered her options and then decided to take the stairs.

The ghost of Ruka had called her a prince and the thought did not settle easily with her. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to be a prince. She wasn't sure if being a prince really meant much unless... She grimaced as she climbed the steps and thought of the girl she always referred to as a prince. She had never liked Utena. She never liked the girl but despite herself she always did what she could to help her. Not noticeable help, nothing expressively apparent except for that one time with the sword.

She hardly knew what had come over her when she offered out her sword to Utena the night she was to fight Touga for the second time. She could have been rid of the girl prince forever. The duels could have gone on... nothing would have changed. But maybe that was why she did it... Juri hoped for change, that gift of being able to change. She hoped for it in herself, for Shiori, and even in a mild way for Ruka.

Grinning, she thought of how awful it was to dislike the girl, especially when the feeling was not really true. It was just a shield against disappointment.

The dueling platform was coming into view. She gripped the sword in her hand a little more tightly and took in a breath. She shut her eyes and the question of who was waiting for her at the top entered her mind. The answer surfaced in her and made her heart give a vague ache.

Juri took the last step up and then turned to meet the eyes of her opponent on the other side of the arena.

She nodded slightly and made a quick swishing salute with the rapier. "Mr. Kiryuu."

"Arisugawa, so nice of you to finally arrive."

To be continued...


	11. For the Sake of Revolution

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 11: For the Sake of a Revolution: Forsaking All Memory  
****PG-13  
****Poetry is mine  
****Shoujo-ai content  
****Utena and its characters do not belong to me I am just borrowing.**

Once the mystery of a place has been destroyed it never quite looks the same ever again. Truly, nothing had changed about the dueling arena. The castle was still high over head, and the rose seal marked the whole of the dueling arena's floor, but the place was not as bright. The lights of the castle were dulled making the hanging monument look like nothing more than a giant tomb. There was no prince in that castle; there was only darkness...only death. Shadows, too, stretched out from the corners barely touching the floor, and the bells that once tolled the beginnings and ends of the duels were rusted, turned from a shinny copper to a duller, oxidized, bluish green.

The mystery of the arena had long since vanished in the minds of the remaining student council members. Even Touga felt the cold chill of lost dreams that had once been the palace of the duels.

They stared at each other for a long time. They had greeted each other and then a slow fog of unease drifted across them. How to begin? That question plagued them. If the bells were working Touga and Juri had no doubt that they would have chimed. Were the bride still there roses would have been placed on their lapels and the rules would have been clear.

Juri shut her eyes, ever mindful of any noise of movement Touga made. This was to be a real duel then. She felt like a chess piece, but a piece who is unaware of the risks, and the rules. She even doubted the reasons behind the game. Hazel eyes opened again and she watched the slight lingering of doubt in Touga's eyes.

Then the silence was broken by the flutter of one hundred pairs of black wings and from out of the shadows hundreds of ravens emerged. They flew up across the sky of the arena passing through each other like specks of darkness, and then they perched on the castle, black eyes watching and waiting. After a moment or two they squawked loudly, ruffled their feathers and Juri knew things were nearly ready to begin.

"A girl can't be a prince Juri. Why are you even trying?"

"Memory." She whispered. She made another salute, sank into one of her favorite fighting stances and added, "And Touga... I am not a girl. I am a lady. Do take care to remember that."

He huffed out a soft chuckle and then grinned smugly.

The ravens squawked again and took off from their perches in what was a blinding fury of wings. And as they flew the two duelists charged each other.

_**All through the waking wonder of a dream  
**__**There are pieces of you  
**__**And it seems you change  
**__**I watch you deepen in colors  
**__**From bright to dark  
**__**From dark to black  
**_**_All through this waking dream  
_**_**I catch pieces of you  
**__**And you change  
**__**You dull and you shine  
**_**_You shine and you show  
_**_**I see pieces  
**__**Broken shards of the mirror and window pane  
**__**I see you in pieces and know I am to blame**_

It wasn't a duel. Even the hardest fought duel maintained a grace, and became a kind of deadly dance. The fight between the two duelists was nothing like a dance. It was a battle. It was dark with bitter edges. Neither ever thought they would feel that way towards the other, but with each cut, with each slash, and clash of their blades the feeling grew. It was beyond the robotic and hypnotized motions of a predetermined fight. It moved passed everything and into the darkest parts of them. And if, by some strange chance, they were to be suddenly taken aside from the ferocity they would not be able to say why it was they were fighting so hard. They would not be able to say what they were fighting for at all.

The memory was lost.

Lost but lingering...It could be seen in their eyes. They would be forced apart for a moment from the heat of the battle and a slight dawning of uncertainty would cross over them. They would questions themselves in that fraction of an instant. They did not feel right and they knew that they were not acting as themselves.

Once again they were at close quarters amid the expansive platform of the arena, swords locked, and sweat pouring down their faces. First blood had already been drawn... and it wasn't enough to make the duel end. Second blood came shortly after and both were certain to bare the scars for a long while to come. They parted jumping back from each other quickly.

"You shouldn't even try to go on," Touga scoffed.

He watched as Juri quickly tore off her jacket and removed a bit tattered fabric from a previous cut. She wrapped it about her free hand in and effort to stop the bleeding from a cut she had received. She was fast about things always, having had a few cuts hit her, and he was not, which, when she thought it was not wise.

She glared at him. There was still a raw bitter anger towards him in the back of her throat but it died away just enough for her to notice that her last quick slash had caught him. It had caught him and she could not tell from where she was but it was close to deadly. She never let her guard down but she shut her eyes. Would they have to die to end the duel? Would it have to be so bloody a sacrifice?

_Yes._

The voice was in the shadows, but it could not be heard, not properly. If it was noticed at all it sounded as nothing more than a passing breeze.

There was a beat of stillness and then the sound of swords clashing echoed up through the arena once again.

_This isn't right._

_It is the only way._

The battle raged it and impossible as it seemed it grew darker. Darker still, as the two duelists struggled against each other kicking, punching and hurting each other deeply...with swords and with words. The shadows watched intently. One was growing ever eager and the other was silent with desperate fear.

Touga kicked Juri off of him. She landed a few inches away, her sword knocked out of her hand. He stood up and went about gloating. If she tried to move for her sword he'd probably try and kill her, but she had other options. Risky options, but options nonetheless.

_This can't go on._

_It is the only way that things can go. The rules are clear...It's the way it is done. The duels go all the way back to the start...And they start with death._

_No._

_It's too late. They are here and you have chosen._

_This is not right. There has to be another way._

_There are no other ways._

The whispers in the shadows were growing louder, though the two on the arena floor paid the sound no heed. The lights of the castle began to glow, but only the ravens who were beginning to fly slowly across the arena noticed it.

Juri's eyes were dark and focused. She seemed to have made up her mind about something.

_We have to stop them._

_There is no interfering. We can not. We must not. This is the way things work out...This is for them._

_No._

_It will end here._

_No._

_It will be decided here._

_No!_

Juri sprang forward and used what force she had to knock Touga sideways. He was thrown off balance and his sword clattered to the ground. Juri picked it up quickly and after the momentary shock he scrambled for what had been her blade.

They turned towards each other and charged.

In the shadows there was one smirking in victory. The other wanted to weep.

_"This is not right." _The sound of the voice grew stronger and echoed clearly across the arena.

_"But I'm afraid it is already done. This is the way it works." _The other voice was not as clear but sounded out to mirror the latter.

_"No..." _There was a soft dawning recollection in that one word. The shadow began to move from its position towards the light coming from the castle. It began to take a shape.

_"We can not interfere there is no way for us except to watch the outcome." _

_"You've tricked me."_

_"I've shown you the way."_

_"No... you've shown me your way. This is not right. This is no way to keep a revolution."_

_"Even revolutions must end. Every prince must see the vision change...go to the end. Die in a way...all revolutions go back to the beginning and there is only one true beginning-"_

_"There are many...There are many endings as well...They are not all the same. You took me on this path but it is not mine to follow. This is your road." _The shadow moved faster closer, the shape becoming clearer.

_"There is no way out once it has begun." _The other followed but stayed in the dark. It could not change.

_"There's always a way...always a light...a shine... it's ever eternal. You tricked me into following you here, but I can not stay." _The shadow drew itself up into the lights of the castle its voice clear, feminine and strong.

_"You can not leave. There's no going back. Only a revolution can bring you back."_

The other shadow, almost complete in her from, considered this and then said_, "No...You've never understood anything about it. What you want is not revolution, it's resurrection, but it was you...You let yourself die. You let the part of you that could change and shape the world crumble. It isn't about revolution it's about sacrifice, and it's about memory. It's about giving all and not thinking of the possible return. You've given me much, but I have my own path to follow. I will reach the end by another route." _

Juri and Touga's swords were scraping each other as they converged. And in one sharp painful moment they could each feel the beginning of the other's blade pierce through them.

The ravens flew up towards the castle, but just before they reached it a bright light descended quickly engulfing everything in its wake. The black birds squawked anxiously and then as the light captured them they disappeared. A shadow emerged from the light; it opened its eyes (robin blue) as it touched the arena floor. Its eyes narrowed, the shadow, who was in fact a young woman dashed towards the two duelists. She held her own sword, charging in a style all her own. Her blade swiftly intervened with the others' sending the swords up and flying , and remarkably not causing more damange to either of fighters.

The duelists blinked back in shock and look towards the intruder, eyes wide in wonder, but the moment did not last. Juri and Touga fell to the floor eyes shut.

The young woman who had appeared shut her eyes briefly and the sword in her hand vanished. She wore all white, a princely uniform that mimicked one she had worn long before. She sighed and then went to pick up the swords she had disarmed from the two slumbering duelists.

_Will you have them remember all this? _The voice sounded from a shadow shaped as the silhouette of a young man, but he could not be seen...only the shadow remained.

"Yes. If I take the memory away I'm no better than... We all need our memories. Even the ones we wish we never had." She looked at the swords in her hand and grimaced. "I need to return these first."

_And you'll let them remember as well, will you?_

"Forgetting would only give them nightmares."

_You're strange. You're a strange girl._

She smiled and then shrugged. "This is where we part ways."

_And so it is... Will you look for her?_

"I won't have to." She walked towards the steps of the arena and watched as the shadows died away. She looked over her shoulder at the duelists and then whispered, "We'll all find each other again one day, and we'll shine... together."

To be continued...


	12. Waking and Wondering

**Title: A Tale of Two Princes  
****Chapter 12: Waking and Wondering  
****Rating: PG-13  
**_**Poetry is mine  
**_**Shoujo-ai Content  
****Utena and its characters do not belong to me. I am just borrowing.**

Juri dreamt...

There was a prince and a light that washed away the anger she had been fighting. There was the prince's voice and the soft promises that they would all meet again.

Touga dreamt...

He heard voices calling for him. He felt his body being moved from the rubble of the old hall. His sister was crying. He was such a bad brother and that made her cry even more.

Juri dreamt...

Of trees and darkness and her body felt like a lead weight sinking into the sea. She heard a voice call her name and chide her. There were sirens in the distance, and she could see the flashing lights and then there was darkness again all around her.

Touga dreamt...

The doctors were amazed but he did not seem to be as badly hurt as they first imagined. There was a bright light in the distance and it warmed him. A voice young and familiar sounding in his ear that she was okay too and what had happened? He tried to get up. He had nearly forgotten her, and then he was settled back...Back into a wave of light.

Juri dreamt...

The voice was petite and curious, overly chatty in her opinion. And there was another voice, one she had not heard in a long time, it was similar to her own, masking its concern by politely talking to the other. Someone mentioned him and that he was in the same state. She called his name. She tried to get up. He needed her help. And then she felt the darkness again, mixed with light...mixed with another voice that was shaken with concern it did not wish to reveal.

Touga dreamt...

And Juri dreamt...

And then one day...

They woke...

_**Strange as it seems but when I'm lost in my dreams  
**__**They feel more and more like memory of time gone by  
**_**_They feel like history lost and found again  
_**_**Under the weight of the visions  
**__**Under the spell of this light  
**__**There is a longing for freedom  
**__**Of doing what is right  
**__**And all through the trying  
**__**As I reach to wake and swim to shore  
**__**All the while I am drowning from this feeling I can not ignore**_

Juri's eyes flit open and caught the pull of her surroundings. She felt like she had been hit by a train, but then she recalled that a bloody duel to the death would probably do that. She shut her eyes again as the fragments of dreams filtered up towards the surface and she considered that they probably weren't really dreams at all, but pieces of delirious memory.

She sighed and the noise seemed to catch the attentions of the person sitting in the chair next to her bed. She tried to sit up but felt too exhausted to do so. Before the person could reach out to help her she fumbled for a button and the bed slowly began to rise. She looked over into the face of her elder sister and then looked quickly away from the questioning emerald gaze.

"Mother and father sent you the giant bouquet." Her sister's voice was cool and sharp, very much like her own, but it was gentle with concern and regret. "And you seem to have quite the fan club."

Juri quirked an eyebrow and looked around the room. There were many different cards and flowers. Her parents' bouquet had been the biggest and most obnoxious looking. Almost hidden from view was a single orange rose, the color of her hair, in a small vase. She shook her head and tried not to think too much about who it might have come from.

"How long," she asked quickly, looking back towards her sister.

"Three weeks."

She wanted to be shocked but she wasn't.

A knock at the door turned the sisters' attentions and when the red headed young man poked his head into the doorway to look in, Juri's sister decided to excuse herself. Juri tried not to notice the glance that her sister was giving to Touga that was a bit like a summing up and consideration to flirt at a later date.

Touga limped in trailing his I.V. drip next to him. After a moment of sorting out he took a seat in the chair next to Juri's bed and smiled when she pulled her blankets up a little more. Then it died away and left them with nothing more than the quiet of the hospital room.

It was Juri who decided to break the silence first.

"I'm sorry."

"Me too."

"I left a mark I'm afraid," Juri said, sadly noting a small thin scar across his cheek.

"Consider it pay back for the one you have."

She raised her hands to her face and there it was just under her left eye. It was defiantly something noticeable. She shut her eyes and sighed.

"She saved us," he said.

"Did she? I suppose she did."

"Your sister-"

Juri gave him sharp look, "Do yourself a favor and consider whatever it is you might say, before you actually say it."

"She's quite nice," he said with a grin.

"She'd break your heart in two and then do it again just because."

"Sounds dreadfully exciting. I might enjoy that, but... she's too old for me."

"Oh good." She let the sarcasm settle out of her voice and then said, "At least it was real."

"I don't think Utena would ever have it in her to try and toy with our memories. She knows how important they are...even if...in some sense they are rather surreal."

Juri nodded in agreement.

Silence took them again and then died away when familiar faces filtered into the room, followed by doctors who decided to come back just a little later, after Touga and Juri gave them a look (the one that most adults in and around Ohtori seemed to fear the most). They were not so sure they deserved the care and concern especially from some of the visitors, but they felt better about it once Miki and Nanami attempted to give them a scolding. Juri's sister watched the commotion from the doorway and there was a sense that eventually everything would be as it was...and yet completely different as well.

**_One cold and quiet day you'll see me  
_**_**And memory will make you turn your head twice  
**__**As you try to recall the name that matches my face  
**__**You will find it sitting there  
**__**Ready for your lips to call out  
**_**_Take no fear for when I hear it  
_**_**I shall answer with a polite nod  
**__**One day soon we shall find each other  
**__**We shall all be bright and shining stars  
**_**_Our hearts that changed will do the same  
_**_**For all the giant world  
**__**In fairytales and dreams we'll go  
**_**_We'll touch each heart we meet  
_**_**We are but things of myth and time  
**__**But remember we are capable of defeat  
**__**Life will test us one by one  
**__**We will all go down that road  
**__**And then one day we'll reach a path  
**__**That has no more journeying  
**__**The end of the world will call us home  
**_**_And for that you must be prepared  
_**_**To face the final question  
**__**What kind of person have you become  
**__**At the end of your revolution **_

Things at the school settled back into a neat routine. Juri Arisugawa found herself walking back from the fencing hall lost in her thoughts of the events that had occurred. No one really asked what had happened to her. No one really tried to look for an explanation, and that, to some end, troubled her. Her sister would not ask, but her sister probably did not have to. She had a way of listening to the crowds around her and getting all the information she needed from there. But, aside from her, there was hardly a muttering of it. She and Touga had explained it to Nanami and Miki. It was quite possible that Touga would write Saionji regarding it. Kozue and Shiori would never ask, but somewhere inside Juri was sure they would know.

The path divided before her and she turned down towards the left, moving towards the big pond. Her feet were doing the thinking, since she was otherwise occupied.

She had had some trouble getting back into fencing. She would go to the practices and she would coach; helping out the novices, but she couldn't spar. She didn't feel comfortable fighting anyone, because somewhere inside was the fear that, perhaps, she'd carry things too far. Eventually though, Miki had called her out, and she was thankful for the encouraging nudge back into life, back into a sport she actually did have a love for.

Her feet made another decision as the path once again jutted of into various directions. A light breeze picked up and carried a few scattered rose petals along with it. The scent carried through the air but she hardly noticed it any longer.

Kozue came to mind, and Juri let out a small sigh. That was one thing she was still unsure about. Things weren't exactly broken so much as they felt cracked. She was afraid, even if the young woman had already accepted her apologies. Things had sort of turned back to the way they had been before Shiori left. They slept together in the same bed without a notion of how to correct their situation. On a surface level it was an easy fix, but deeper, inside, all around, it was a difficult task. There in one stroke was everything Juri never wanted to do to anyone she cared for. And whether the hurt was felt or not, she carried with her the feeling she had betrayed someone she loved. The memory stung at her, but memories, she knew, she could work passed.

The pond was quiet, which was slightly odd for the time of year, but one lone visitor sat on one of the benches watching the water. Juri moved towards him making light quick strides. When she sat down he turned to smile at her and then they let the silence of the place (which was not really silence at all; it was the low buzz of insects in the grass, the occasional splash from a fish, the wind in the trees...it was the sound of the quiet) speak from them, but only for a while.

"Your sister left finally," Touga asked casually, making conversation for the sake of conversation.

"Yes. She said I have no excuses for staying at school during the breaks all the time." Juri paused and then smiling slightly added, "Do you remember when we all gathered together for that final duel?"

He nodded, and then shifted in his seat so he could see her face better.

"I told a story about how my sister nearly drowned... I asked her about it."

"Oh?"

"I always thought it was cruel that she never remembered the name of that boy who had tried to save her. She still doesn't, but do you know what she told me?"

He shook his head slightly and then brushed his red hair out of his eyes.

"She said that even though she doesn't remember his name, she remembers his face. She remembers that look on his face as he tried so desperately to do whatever he could to save her. The adults may get to take the credit for the actual rescue, but he was her hero. She forgot his name but...she never really forgot him. She didn't forget the act, or the sacrifice."

The quiet crept up around them. Leaving them to ponder what had just been said. After a while Touga stood up a walked over to the edge of the pond. He put his hand in his pocket and then pulled something out of it. He held it in his hand for a long time and then tossed it out into the water. It hit with a polite, plunk...And then the quiet filled the space around them again.

Before he could turn to go and sit back down he felt a hand on his shoulder. He shut his eyes and sighed thoughtfully.

"She made us a promise. Was it her test or ours? Was it worth anything or not? I'd love to have those answers Touga. I'd love to be certain about what it all means, but all I have is what I remember. And I suppose that will have to do," Juri stated calmly, and she wondered if one day she might be able to fully convince herself of what she had just said. She hoped so.

"Are we princes, Juri, or are we just students?"

She shrugged. "What do you want to be Touga?"

He grinned and then returned the shrug. "One day," he started to say.

"One day, yes...One day."

Juri pat him on his shoulder and walked off. As she did she noticed someone waiting for her further down the path. She grimaced and then as she approached the young woman it grew into a grin. It was time to start living again. It was time to be a student, and fencing captain. It was time to be her self, to be a panther...and it was time move on passed fairytale endings. It was simply time...and there was time enough.

The End.


End file.
